Microsoft General Council, Brad Smith tweeted out a response today to Google’s open letter on an alleged anti-Android patent conspiracy, basically calling shenanigans on their whole Nortel act:
Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.
Which makes very little sense, given how angry Google reportedly was about not winning the bidding (regardless of the silly way they went about it), and their interest in having the DoJ investigate it.
Jon Fingas at Electronista hypothesizes that, if true, it calls into questions Google’s whole patent victim routine:
His remarks if accurate imply that the bidding group, which named itself Rockstar BidCo and also included companies like RIM and Sony, is primarily intended as a defensive mechanism to prevent lawsuits from patent trolls and other, usually smaller firms from suing anyone involved in the coalition. Many have presumed that the group was united with the aim of further suing Google and slowing down the adoption of Android.
So either Smith is completely out to lunch, or some people in Mountain View have some explaining to do…
UPDATE: Frank X. Shaw, from Microsoft Communications has posted a copy of the email to Brad Smith of Microsoft from Kent Walker, Google’s General Counsel. Along with this sharply worded tweet:
Free advice for David Drummond – next time check with Kent Walker before you blog. 
http://t.co/PfKle9H
[@BradSmi via Electronista, @xfshaw via WPCentral]
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