Rockstar Consortium, a patent troll owned by Microsoft, Apple, BlackBerry, Ericcson and Sony, is suing Google and its Android partners, including Samsung and HTC.
Setting up two lines of attacks, the suit has Rockstar suing Google over patents that lie at the heart of its search advertising business and manufacture of Android devices.
The complaint against Google involves six patents, which describe "an advertisement machine which provides advertisements to a user searching for desired information within a data network." Google seems unfazed by the allegations thus far.
"While we haven't yet been served with this complaint, we continue to advocate for patent reform that would address the current flood of patent litigation," said a Google spokesperson.
Founded in 2011, Rockstar was born when Google and Intel lost a high-profile bidding war for the remains of the patent portfolio of Canadian telecom giant Nortel. Rockstar is chartered with giving back the $4.5 billion to those companies that had pooled together to build its patent portfolio. The company employs a handful of former Nortel engineers who spend their days in Ottawa reverse engineering labs, scouring the tech world for infringing products.
Speaking with WIRED during a profile last year, company CEO John Veschi told the publication that "pretty much" all technology companies infringe at least one of its massive portfolio of over 4,000 patents.
"It would be hard for me to envision that there are high-tech companies out there that don't use some of the patents in our portfolio," said Veschi.
Two different law firms will handle the suits as the cases were filed in Eastern District of Texas. Google's search suit is being handled by Susman Godfrey. The suits targeting the manufacturers are being managed by McKool Smith, a Texas law firm that has a reputation for scoring $368 million from Apple for VirnetX, $290 million from Microsoft over i4i's XML patent and a $173 million verdict against Qualcomm.
