14 DAY TRIAL // Since it's the biggest story of the last few days, Apple's win against Samsung in the patent lawsuit in the US shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. And since it's such a big win and, more importantly, a symbolic one, even Google had to say something about.
Google has notably stayed out of patent disputes involving Android, unless of course they involved it specifically, like the Oracle trial.
But it had to say something now. Obviously, it wanted to stay as far away from the damage as possible, so the crux of its argument is that whatever the jury found Samsung copied was not a core Android feature and was added by Samsung alone.
"The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims. Most of these don’t relate to the core Android operating system, and several are being re-examined by the US Patent Office," Google said in a statement.
You don't even need to read between the lines to understand what Google is saying. First and foremost, it underlines that there will be an appeal. No one is arguing about that. In fact, the case could very well go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The appeal could find that Samsung didn't infringe, Google believes, but it could also find that the patents themselves aren't valid. Why, the US Patent Office, which issued the patents in the first place, is now re-examining several of them.
And in any case, even if they are valid and even if Samsung infringed, Android doesn't even use those patents "so, there," seems to be Google's final argument.
"The mobile industry is moving fast and all players – including newcomers – are building upon ideas that have been around for decades. We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don’t want anything to limit that," Google also said.
This last part is basically just Google subtly undermining the validity of the patent system and hints at the fact that Apple too was "inspired" by the things that came before it and what other players are doing.