Google recently announced that it will acquire Motorola Mobile for $12.5 billion. Boston University School of Law lecturer James Bessen is the co-author of Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk. He offers the following comment on the impact of the deal:
“This acquisition demonstrates that patents today are more about blocking innovation than encouraging it in information technology. Google is not buying these patents because it wants to use Motorola’s innovations. Google already has a highly innovative product and lots of innovation going on. Instead, it is buying Motorola’s patents to prevent Apple, Microsoft, etc., from keeping Google’s innovations off the market.”
Contact Bessen at 617-353-3110; jbessen@bu.edu
