Google has opened up a new front in its patent battle with Rockstar Consortium, an entity formed by a group of its competitors including Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
In a 13-page complaint filed in the Northern District of California, Google asked for a declaratory judgment that it doesn’t infringe seven patents Rockstar acquired from Nortel Networks Inc. Rockstar has asserted these same patents in infringement lawsuits against gadget-makers that use Google’s Android operating system, and Google said it felt compelled to act. “Rockstar’s litigation campaign has placed a cloud on Google’s Android platform [and] threatened Google’s business,” the search giant’s lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan alleged.
