The heated mobile patent war between Google and Microsoft has played out in a very public way. This time, Google broke its silence in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. Google’s patent counsel Tim Porter argues that the United States’ patent “system itself is broken.”

“For too long, the patent office granted protection to broad, vague or unoriginal ideas masquerading as inventions,” wrote Chronicle Columnist James Temple.

In their Nov. 6 Q&A, Porter said that Microsoft’s modus operandi is to use the large patent portfolio they’ve built to get a piece of the pie from other companies’ successful products when their products stop succeeding in the marketplace or become marginalized, as is happening now with Android.

There needs to be “real standards” for what is patentable, Porter told the Chronicle. “Patents are supposed to be a form of property. The property system doesn't work if you don't have clear boundaries,” he said.

Citing a recent Nielsen report, the Chronicle also pointed out that Android now claims 43 percent of the smart-phone operating system market, compared with 28 percent for the iPhone and 18 percent for RIM’s BlackBerry.

In response to Microsoft Patent Attorney Horacio Gutiérrez’s recent comments, Porter said such intense litigation around licensing and cross-licensing deals are not necessarily inevitable.

“Microsoft was our age when it got its first software patent. I don't think they experienced this kind of litigation in a period when they were disrupting the established order. So I don't think it's historically inevitable,” he told the Chronicle. “What I think we're hoping to avoid is this intense focus on litigation to the degree that we all stop innovating.”

Every week seems to bring new lawsuits and countersuits revolving around software patents allegedly being infringed upon by Android-based smartphones and tablets. Here’s a timeline that chronicles what companies have sued Android vendors and how Google has tried to counter such suits.

(Source: tmcnet.com)