Submitted by “Apple has been assigned rights to over 200 patents and pending patent applications by Freescale Semiconductor, the chip design company spun off from Motorola in 2003. Though the exact details of the transaction aren’t discernible from the public records, the bulk of the patents appear to be related to wireless communication hardware technology.” Uh-oh. World, be prepared for even more patent lawsuits as Android continues to grow. Sigh.
Every major smartphone maker already has licenses to every single one of those patents – you can be sure of that. Probably due to cross licensing agreements.
Why would Freescale sell those patents if they though that they could make more money off licensing them. It looks like a defensive move, because Apple seriously lacks patents in mobile hardware area…
It’s more akin to Google’s bet on Nortel patent portfolio, than Lodsys type of “venture”
Companies sell assets all the time for various reasons. Perhaps they just needed actual immediate cash rather than potential future licensing income.
It would be very ironic if Apple would sue Motorola over some patents they’ve originally put up. But maybe Motorola retained some rights to patents.