14 February 2013Patents

Google countersues BT for patent infringement

Google has sued telecoms provider BT and its subsidiaries BT Conferencing, BT Americas, BT INS and Ipanema Technologies over four patents relating to its conference calling and quality of service insurance technologies.

The complaint was filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California on Wednesday, with Google officially serving its legal papers for patent infringement to BT in the UK on Thursday.

It is the latest development in a dispute between the two companies that started in December 2011, when BT sued Google and its Motorola Mobility subsidiary over six mobile technology patents that use the Android operating system. That case is still pending in Delaware.

UK-based BT operates communication services for corporate customers in the US.

BT owns around 5,000 patents, and in 2000, unsuccessfully sued US Internet service provider Prodigy, claiming that it owns IP rights related to hyperlinks.

Google is not renowned for initiating patent infringement cases. Florian Müller, a patent consultant for Microsoft, said that it was the first time Google had filed a patent infringement case in its history.

However, the company did acquire Motorola Mobility and its patent portfolio in May 2012, in a deal worth $12.5 billion.

BT said that its policy is not to comment on pending litigation, while Google did not respond to a request for comment.

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