The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has closed its investigation into Google’s US$12.5bn acquisition of Motorola Mobility, after deciding that the deal was unlikely to substantially lessen competition. The decision was announced only hours after the…
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has closed its investigation into Google’s US$12.5bn acquisition of Motorola Mobility, after deciding that the deal was unlikely to substantially lessen competition. The decision was announced only hours after the European Commission had given its approval for the transaction.
The DoJ said that its investigation had focused on whether the acquiring company could use the target’s patents to raise costs for rivals or foreclose competition.
It noted that Motorola Mobility had a “long and aggressive history” of looking to capitalise on its intellectual property rights, as shown by its disputes with companies like Apple and Microsoft.
It added: “As Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility is unlikely to materially alter that policy, the division concluded that transferring ownership of the patents would not substantially alter current market dynamics.”
Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio includes 17,000 patents and around 7,000 pending patents.
The investigation also looked at so-called “standard essential patents” (SEPs), which Motorola Mobility had committed to license to industry participants through “standard-setting organizations” (SSOs).
The DoJ said that Google had made commitments regarding its SEP licensing policy, although noting that those were “more ambiguous” than commitments offered by other players in similar situations.
“The acquisition of the patents by Google did not substantially lessen competition, but how Google may exercise its patents in the future remains a significant concern,” the regulator concluded.
