Google and Apple CEOs Secretly Discussing Patents
Following the Samsung lost trial against Apple, on account of infringed patents, Google must’ve felt a weakness in the Android hardware partner camp and went straight to Apple for talks. It appears that Google CEO Larry Page had a discussion with Apple CEO Tim Cook, regarding the intellectual property matters between the two companies.
Let me remind you that last Friday Samsung officially received the verdict in the US Apple trial against them, with the decision to pay up $1 billion. I guess that Google wants to end disputes and may even agree to pay up a licensing fee, just like the one the pay Microsoft for each Android phone sold. Page and Cook will have more discussions over the following weeks, but no exact date has been set. Imagine if Apple was going after HTC and asking 1 billion. That could have totally killed their business… but Samsung is big enough not to feel the hit.
Everyone views the battles between Apple, HTC, Samsung and Motorola as proxy battles between Apple and Google. Steve Jobs declared back in the days that he’s willing to go thermonuclear against Android and Larry Page didn’t forget that. However, Google is not the type of company to attack, since they’re motto is after all “Don’t be evil”. However, when they’re attacked, they may feel the need to counter and buying Motorola was a preemptive move, that didn’t work out so well, I guess. When will this battle end?
