Thursday, January 30, 2014

Google to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91B - FierceWireless

Google to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91B - FierceWireless:

This is a pretty good take on the strategic transaction that Google has entered into with Lenovo.

The headlines will be very misleading related to the Motorola Wireless deal that Google just made for selling the handset division (hardware) to Lenovo. People will look at the almost $12.4B deal where Google bought some 17,000 and the Motorola wireless division that comes with it in May of 2012. and say that Google gooped up on this transaction. (Somewhat reminiscent of the Skype deals where Microsoft ended up with the technology at a small price compared to what eBay paid a few years earlier.)

This is a very smart deal by Google. Google is apparently keeping all of the software patents. The licensing (cross-licensing) agreements will probably give Google freedom to do whatever they want in the space. It takes them out of the hardware business, which made handset makers nervous (as an unfair competition with the bundle of handsets with Android OS).

When Google bought Motorola Mobility as a defensive maneuver. The problem is that Google's "free" operating system and products tromp on thousands and thousands of patents (and copyrights). So they needed the patent portfolio to fight the patent war in computing and mobility. (Just as Microsoft needed the AOL patents.) Steve Jobs and Apple have been very irritated with Google giving away (their) technology; but it is a little more complicated to sue and make money from a product being sold for $0.00 per unit.

Even though Google gives many of its products way for "free", it does make quite a lot of money, primarily from advertising. About 70% of Google's stock value is attributable to its advertising (about half PC and half mobile). Google now is at a market cap of $380B bringing it up quickly onto size of the two largest market cap companies in the world Apple ($450B) and ExxonMobil ($411B) as of Jan 30 2014.

So now Google has the patent protection they had to have, and they have sold it too. Beautiful. Now they can move into the offensive position in the patent wars. This is a game of Risk, but with multiple dimensions like 3-level chess. There is what you see above the board, but what is below the board -- where the patent portfolios live -- is where the armies are being amassed.

Make no doubt, small players will be crushed. Blackberry and maybe even Nokia will likely be completely isolated. Orphaned.

This will give Samsung a little competition. Samsung dominates the cell phone market, especially among android phones. See add to Samsung Worries. Google can not afford to allow Samsung to get too big and too strong.

From Googles perspective, this is a work of motion art. Beautiful.

Other players, say Apple, may not appreciate the beauty of it so much.

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Friday, January 24, 2014

The Energy Roadmap - The Edison of our Age: Stan Ovshinsky ... Who killed the Electric Car?... a who dun it of history.


Ovshinsky is compared to Edison as a prolific inventor... He hold patents on NiMH batteries. His solar cells power the MIR space station.

Good question on Cobasys and the restrictions on next-gen batteries by the patents held within the company.!:-) The batteries that have become so critical in the next generation of batteries, electric cars, etc. are subject to patents by Ovshinsky (and the Cobasys company).

Cobasys is a 50/50 joint venture with Chevron/Texico and Ovonics. Ovonics has the Stan Ovshinsky inventions and GM now has a big ownership stake in that company.

So let's see, a BIG oil and a BIG auto have a BIG stake in the very batteries that make an electric car viable.

Look at "Patent encumbrances" at Wikipedia. The discussion on "Who Killed the Electric Car?" seem far truer than I ever imagined. This whole topic requires a lot more reading. But before picking up the thread again, I want to watch the movie.

Anybody out there have big ideas (substantiated by facts, I hope) on the issue.

Keywords: electric car, EV, oil, auto, battery, patent, patent encumbrances, inventor, Ovshinsky 

See similar blog over in www.SustainZine.com

Thursday, January 23, 2014

References Cited Per Patent are up 250% in 10 years | Patently-O

References Cited Per Patent | Patently-O:

This is interesting how the number of issued patents cited have gone up from about 20 total patents references to about 50.  Over the last 10 years! WOW.

The additional references from the examiner appears to be consistent at about 5 to 7; but as the comments indicate, some of those may already have already been mentioned in some form by the applicant.

That is a 250% increase in the number of patents being mention in a patent application.

Reasons are definitely up for debate!

WOW!

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Friday, January 17, 2014

Secrecy cloaks patents on inventions in Canada: NSA for IP

Secrecy cloaks patents on inventions hidden far from public eye by Industry Canada:

Wow.
So in Canada you can have your patent applications totally shielded from all view/publication. And, we presume, against your will and better judgement. But only for National Security.

One would assume, that you will have lots of problems, then, if you were to consider bringing it to market commercially (non-military).

And, here in the US of A, we are grappling with how best to spy on our citizens. (President Obama's news conference today. See here on News conference.

Patent applications are the agreement between government and inventor to arrange and organized disclosure of inventions and grant monopoly power over that invention for up to 20 years. US patent law & USPTO.gov.

Public disclosure is a key word here.

This is kind of interesting: secret patents. Canada must be taking its lead from the NSA!:-(

Don't you love it.?!

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