Google’s buyout of Motorola is latest in tech gold rush
AUG 17, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025517
New York Times : Recently Google bought out Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in order to acquire its some 17 000 patents. Such buyouts are becoming more common, say analysts, and this growing patent gold rush runs counter to what the patent system was set up to achieve. Instead of spending money on new inventions, companies are expending huge sums to buy up already existing ones. “You’d much rather see Google invest that $12 billion to generate new knowledge,” said Josh Lerner, an economist at the Harvard Business School. “It’s a transfer of wealth from innovators to bondholders and stockholders who have no motivation to innovate. It’s disturbing.” The patent inflation is being blamed on weakened legislation regarding patent rights and the subsequent rise in lawsuits and countersuits.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
