As you know, recently Apple clashed with Google for the right to hold the patents of a bankrupt Canadian company Nortel. The Apple Company won. And today, an opinion has appeared on the Web about why she needs these patents.
The point is that in this way Apple can use obtained patents to fight competitors. Namely, in the fight against its main enemy in the mobile device market - the operating system Google Android, whose legal position is now much more complicated.
It's not just about litigation, but also about patent royalties from other manufacturers, which is also very, very nice.
As is known, along with Apple и Google The Nortel patent auction was also attended by companies such as R.I.M., Microsoft, Ericsson, EMS и Intel. By entering into a consortium with R.I.M., Microsoft, Ericsson и EMS, Apple paid out $2 billion (total the consortium paid out $4.5 billion). Google dropped out of the fight, having managed to provide only 4 billion.
Apple paid such a large amount precisely for the right to possess patents (for their simple use, one could get by with a much smaller amount).