Google steps up patent war by buying Motorola

Google is to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn. The deal means the search giant, which owns the Android mobile operating system, will acquire 17,000 patents as part of the deal and can use them to step up its challenge to Apple and its industry-leading iPhone and iPad devices.

Motorola Mobility, which is a mobile phone manufacturer, was created earlier this year, when the parent company, Motorola, split into two entities. Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility will be completed by early 2012.

The move is a significant development in an ongoing, and hugely confusing, patent war between the various players in the mobile phone market, who are locked in a myriad of lawsuits.

For instance, Apple is suing Motorola, Samsung and HTC, while it settled a dispute with Nokia in June. Motorola, meanwhile, is also being sued by Microsoft. One technology blogger made a heroic attempt to visualise the patent melee in a graphic in October 2010, here. It is already out of date.

The war has been characterised by Google as a bid to "strangle" Android, which is now the most popular mobile phone operating system. In a blog posted earlier this year, the search giant accused Apple and Microsoft ("when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what's going on") of buying up old patents in an attempt to impose a licensing fee "tax" on every Android handset and make such devices more expensive for consumers.

Apple and Microsoft phones run, respectively, using iOS and Windows Phone 7 and might understandably feel threatened by the success of Android OS.

Today, Google said that adding to its patent portfolio with the acquisition of Motorola Mobility "will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies". ·