There's no love lost between Google and Microsoft, especially when it comes to patent issues. With Microsoft going around bullying phone makers into paying a patent licensing fee for using Android, you can expect Google to be rather upset and it's made no efforts in trying to hide it.
At the same time, Microsoft has been the source of several anti-trust lawsuits, in Europe, funded plenty of studies which ended up criticising Google and is part of or associated with many groups that go after Google.
It's not surprising then that Matt Cutts, Google's search quality guru, is taking a rather cynical view at the fact that Florian Mueller, a well-known patent analyst, is being paid by Microsoft for a
study.
"Florian Mueller, the patent analyst (he's not a lawyer) who often takes anti-Google stances, just revealed that Microsoft is funding Mueller to create a new study about patents," Cutts
wrote on Google+.
Mueller has followed the Google versus Oracle lawsuit, which is centered on Android and in which Oracle accuses Google of both patent and copyright infringement.
The analyst is also following anything related to Android patents. He has been critical of Google on occasions, but it's perhaps a bit of a stretch to consider him anti-Google.
As an consultant, he makes a living, well, from consulting, for which he gets paid, this time by Microsoft. It's an ethical dilemma and it will probably cast doubt on any of his post concerning Google competitors, but again, he is an analyst not a journalist, his job is to provide his opinion.
At the very least, people should be pleased that he revealed his connection to Microsoft in an honest way and has listed some of the things he agrees on with Microsoft, as well as those he doesn't agree upon.
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