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U.S. Justice Department and EU approve Google bid for Motorola Mobility

The U.S. Deparment of Justice (DOJ) has approved Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility. Today, the European Union (EU) also concluded its examination of the merger and approved the deal without any conditions. The main reason for Google‘s purchase of Motorola Mobility is to acquire the large portfolio of patents held by Motorola. The Justice Department concluded that it was unlikely that Google would use the patents to “raise rivals’ costs or foreclose competition.”

Besides the Google bid for Motorola Mobility, the Justice Department approved the transfer of patents from bankrupt Nortel Networks, which was a maker of communications equipment, to a consortium of companies known as Rockstar Bidco, comprised of Research in Motion, Microsoft, and Apple, which was formed in June at the Nortel bankruptcy auction. The consortium acquired about 6,000 Nortel patents.

The Justice Department ALSO approved Apple’s acquisition of patents from CPTN Holdings, formerly owned by Novell.

“The division concluded that the specific transactions at issue are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics,” the Justice Department said in its statement.

The Justice Department added that during its investigation, Google, Apple, and Microsoft made commitments that they would license their newly acquired intellectual property on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. The companies also promised to not seek injunctions in disputes involving these patents.

To a former biologist like me, the actions looked a lot like a pack of wolves, recycling the nutrients from old and feeble members of a herd of elk, some of which suffered the mental “ossification” of organisms that have lived too long. Although there is little that is “natural” about corporations, which generally function as game preserves for personality types picked by “unnatural selection….”

An executive editor at CNET News, writing in an analytical article entitled, “It’s official: DOJ believes in the tooth fairy,” questioned whether the day was a good one for consumers, given certain companies’ propensity to kneecap rivals by using the power of patent litigation.

The Justice Department, and the EU have both promised to monitor the market.

“In light of the importance of this industry to consumers and the complex issues raised by the intersection of the intellectual property rights and antitrust law at issue here, as well as uncertainty as to the exercise of the acquired rights, the division continues to monitor the use of SEPs in the wireless device industry, particularly in the smartphone and computer tablet markets,” the Justice Department said. “The division will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action to stop any anticompetitive use of SEP rights.”

And, although “SEP” as used here stands for “standard essential patents,” as we all learned in the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series, ONE OTHER meaning of “SEP” is “Someone Else’s Problem!” :-)

-Bill at

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