Google spent $12B last year for Motorola’s mobile-patents. Facebook paid Microsoft $550 million for some of the patents that Microsoft bought from AOL.The question is… for business or lawsuits?Yahoo filed a lawsuit against Facebook over alleged patent infringement. Facebook countersued. Apple sued Samsung, which they won in America but now there are trials in other countries. British Telecom and Oracle sued Google.There is a surge in technology patent applications, which has created a huge backlog. Essentially, there is no way to make anything without violating every other big player’s patents. This ends up hurting the consumers, as there are fewer innovative products due to challenges that start-ups may face over patents.Are patents hindering your innovation?
