Google’s Motorola Mobility unit was sent a European Union antitrust complaint for abusing its dominant position as part of a probe into its control of key patents in gadgets such as Apple iPhones and iPads.
The EU antitrust regulator said it suspects that Motorola Mobility, which Google bought last year for $12.4 billion (€9.5 billion), is abusing its dominant position.
The company is accused of “seeking and enforcing” injunctions against Apple in Germany based on its patents that are essential for products to comply with industry-agreed technical standards.
“Companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer -- not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in an e-mailed statement from Brussels yesterday.
The EU is cracking down on patent abuses as Motorola Mobility, Microsoft, Apple and Samsung Electronics trade victories in divergent court rulings across the world on intellectual property.
Almunia last year sent Samsung a formal complaint over its patent-use and is targeting “rules of the game” to prevent companies from unfairly leveraging their inventions to thwart rivals.
The EU opened a formal probe into Motorola Mobility, which makes smartphones that run on Google’s Android software, in April 2012, following complaints by Microsoft and Apple.
