GOOGLE'S top lawyer has accused Apple, Oracle, Microsoft and other companies of using "bogus patents" to wage a campaign against the internet giant's Android mobile platform.
In a blog post, Google senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond said Google's rivals were seeking to "make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices."
"Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation," Mr Drummond said.
Google was a bidder for the Nortel patent portfolio but it lost out to a $US4.5 billion ($4.19 billion) bid from the consortium made up of iPhone maker Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Blackberry maker Research in Motion and Japan's Sony.
The huge sum spent on the patents and the involvement of many of the world's top tech companies reflected the fierce battle for intellectual property in the tech industry, where firms are often hit with patent-infringement lawsuits.
Google is currently being sued by software giant Oracle over technology used in its Android smartphone operating system.
"Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anti-competitive means - which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop," he continued.
Mr Drummond said Google was encouraged that the US Justice Department is looking into whether Microsoft and Apple acquired the Nortel patents for "anti-competitive means".
"We're also looking at other ways to reduce the anti-competitive threats against Android by strengthening our own patent portfolio," he said.
"We're determined to preserve Android as a competitive choice for consumers, by stopping those who are trying to strangle it."
