Updated: Google responds to Microsoft’s claims in Novell patent dispute: “Our competitors are waging a patent war on Android”

Update: As expected, outspoken Microsoft Corporate Vice President Frank X. Shaw has responded to Drummond’s response from earlier today. There isn’t much to learn here, but Shaw’s tweets pretty much speak for themselves and Microsoft’s stance on the issue. We’re bound to hear more from Google execs on the issue, stay tuned for the latest. Shaw’s tweets after the break, if you’re interested.

Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond has taken to the official Google blog once again to respond to Microsoft’s Brad Smith’s claims Google backed out of the opportunity to jointly bid for Novell patents.

Drummond writes:

“A joint acquisition of the Novell patents that gave all parties a license would have eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners”

Drummond points out the U.S. Department of Justice has now intervened, forcing Apple and Microsoft to provide an open-source license in order to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community.”

Its clear Google doesn’t want to pay for patents that aren’t going to help them defend Android from competitors in the future. A joint bid would have essentially forced them to do so, which is the reason they claim “competitors are waging a patent war on Android”.

If you don’t know by now, Google and Microsoft executives have been exchanging heated words in a series of stabs online regarding a recent joint bid by Apple and Microsoft to acquire Novell smartphone related patents. It started with a blog post by Google’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond which accused Google, Microsoft and others of buying the patents as an “organized campaign against Android”.

Microsoft responded to Drummond’s original post today in a series of Tweets. The first by general counsel Brad Smith who claimed Google offered Microsoft the chance to join the bid for the Novell patents. The second was an email from Google’s counsel to Smith opting out of the opportunity to do exactly that.

Shaw’s latest tweets:

via TechCrunch