Perhaps, but I find the end result to be just as vile: a conglomeration of companies banding together to bully a weaker[1] rival. That sounds like anti-competitive behavior to me.
[1] Weaker in relation to the combined power of the conglomeration, anyway.
The laws in the US are pretty clear on this subject. In general, as soon as you start colluding between companies, pooling resources, shaking hands and ganging up against one company, antitrust comes into play. Just look at what happened to Apple and publishers, standard oil, etc.
Having said that, one of the parties involved in collusion was Microsoft. They covered their tracks well, as they have had more than a few run ins with the government here. You can see that in the, "Look, we asked them to join us, they chose not to do so" line.. Which was a laughable point by the way, as joining their group wouldn't have allowed for protecting android manufacturers. But it provides an alibi for regulators. IMO, it's not a very good alibi.
Microsoft and Apple took a huge risk in their collusion. I imagine discovery might bring up some juicy tidbits. I figure they knew the risks, but reasoned that sticking it to their biggest 'problem' was worth the risk of getting caught up with regulators. So that tells you about how scared they are.
Not that it makes it right, but does anyone think that Google wouldn't have used these patents offensively against the Rockstar companies if they had ended up with them?
Yes, I believe that. Based on their past statements and actions I don't believe they would use them offensively. Do you believe they couldn't use the Motorola patent portfolio against those companies if they wanted to?
>Do you believe they couldn't use the Motorola patent portfolio against those companies if they wanted to?
Huh, haven't they been using them against Apple and MS? MS now pays them for H.264 patents, though considerably less than what demanded, and Motorola got convicted and fined by a jury for FRAND abuse.
[1] Weaker in relation to the combined power of the conglomeration, anyway.