Patents case puts apple closer to fight with google

SAN FRANCISCO: Steve Jobs minced no words when talking about Android, Google's mobile operating system, which he saw as too similar to the iPhone's. He told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that Android was "a stolen product" and said, "I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

But so far Apple has not gone to war with Google, at least not directly. Instead, Apple has sued the cellphone makers that use Android in their products - like Samsung, which was hit with a claim of more than $1 billion in damages Friday when a jury found that it had infringed on some of Apple's patents.


Now, though, the war is drawing closer to Google's doorstep. Google is increasingly making its own hardware, thanks in part to its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, or playing an integral part in designing it, as it did with the Nexus 7 tablet. And the jury in the Samsung trial found that features built into Android, and not just features added by Samsung, violated Apple patents - potentially forcing Google to adjust its software.


"Apple's desire is to be able to put Google on that hot seat, but they need a path to actually be able to do that, and so far all they've seen is a way to go after actual hardware-makers," said Charles S. Golvin, a mobile industry analyst at Forrester.


Google could end up more squarely in Apple's sights if it doesn't take precautions, Golvin said.


"What it means for the Android folks is a very careful review, back to the drawing board, including a close examination of Apple's stable of patents to weed out anything that looks risky in terms of violating the Apple portfolio," he said.


Apple and Microsoft have both sued phone makers in large part because it is far easier to calculate the damages those companies could owe from the sale of patent-infringing phones.


Unlike Apple, which makes both iPhone software and hardware, Google makes Android software but leaves the manufacturing of phones and the customization of specific Android features to other companies, like Samsung, HTC and Motorola. (Although Google now owns Motorola, it has said it will work no more closely with Motorola than with the other hardware companies when it comes to making Android phones.)


And Google gives the Android software to manufacturers at no charge. Instead, it makes money on Android indirectly, by selling mobile ads, along with apps and media in its Google Play store.