FSFE On Rockstar vs. Google: “Software Patents As A License For Privateering”

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) today issued a warning about the rise of Rockstar, a consortium of large companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Sony, formed to assert former Nortel patents. The consortium recently sued Google and other companies for infringement of several of those patents.

“FSFE voiced serious concerns and warned competition regulators against exactly such a scenario in December 2011,” it said in a release.

Previously, the US Department of Justice imposed limits on the use of the patent portfolio of software company Novell, including preventing them from being used against free software, the group said.

But when Rockstar bought Nortel’s patents, “things were different,” FSFE said. “Whatever promises, if any, the US competition regulators managed to extract from the companies that make up Rockstar – Microsoft, Apple, RIM, Ericsson, and Sony – are clearly ineffective. Rockstar’s CEO is even reported as publicly stating that he does not feel bound by any such commitments. The result is an entirely predictable lawsuit where a proxy company is using generic, overbroad patents in order to harm a competitor.”

“Patents on software are a dangerous business risk at the best of times,” FSFE General Counsel Carlo Piana said. “In highly competitive markets like the one for mobile devices, they are essentially a license for privateering.”

The Rockstar case “highlights the need for regulators to monitor patent transactions tightly, and analyse their consequences carefully,” FSFE said. “Lawsuits such as this strangle innovation and impose a private tax on productive companies.”