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BMW, Audi, and Mercedes Want to Buy Nokia's Here Mapping Group

posted by CoolHand on Thursday May 07 2015, @10:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the battle-of-the-corporate-giants dept.

sigma writes:

In a move that could backfire badly, car manufacturers are working together to buy control of Nokia maps with the intent of blocking Google's development of software for self-driving vehicles. The auto-makers consider open sourced autonomous vehicles to be an existential threat to their existing business, and are prepared to pay Nokia more than two billion dollars to stymie the disruptive technology.

“The greatest threat to the automobile industry would be if Google developed an operating system for self-driving cars and made it available free to everyone,” said one source speaking with the WSJ.

http://jalopnik.com/bmw-audi-and-mercedes-benz-want-to-buy-nokia-s-maps-t-1702660909

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @03:45AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @03:45AM (#180179)

    My guess is that they have a patent portfolio.

    "A method to describe a route to a location ON A COMPUTER"

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Friday May 08 2015, @06:42AM

    by anubi (2828) on Friday May 08 2015, @06:42AM (#180216) Journal

    Following is a layman's rant on the idea of patenting...

    There should be no patent on the CONCEPT of skinning a cat; however a particular METHOD of skinning a cat could be patented. If you want to do it "on a computer", then the exact placement of the cat on the machine and exact tool used to skin the cat can be claimed.

    However, I guess one could find an infinite number of ways to skin a cat on a computer.

    I am getting so fed up with these "blanket" patents that are so broad that even having a cat next to a computer is a violation.

    If Nokia wants to make maps, fine. If Google wants to follow around and make maps too, fine. To me, this is just a McDonalds vs. Burger King thing.

    And that's what I would say should I find myself ever in a jury regarding these matters.

    I look forward to seeing what Google can do with their autonomous cars. I hope they succeed. We already have way too many humans driving cars not paying due attention.

    This patent litigation stuff is just going too far when the patent system is just used to throw stumbling blocks at others trying to get something done. I certainly cannot see anything Google or Here Mapping Group has done that is all that unique, however I would consider the databases they assembled to be their property and they should be able to share them on whatever terms they wish to negotiate.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]