Hold the phone, Google - this isn't over yet - Ottawa Citizen

With a single monstersized deal, Google Inc. has closed one door on its problems in the cellular arena and opened another to a new array of issues.

For $12.5-billion U.S., Google will take over the assets of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the company that introduced the world to the flip phone in the mid-1990s. The acquisition gives the Internet search giant a treasure trove of cellular patents through which it can better defend itself against an ever increasing amount of litigation from competitors.

You can't blame Google for wanting to protect its market. The Motorola deal will help Google continue to support its massively successful Android phone software, now present on more than 48 per cent of all cellular phones globally, according to recent data from researcher Canalys.

That adds up to more than 150 million Android devices, from Motorola and from other manufacturers.

In recent months, though, competitors such as Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. have claimed the Android operating system infringes on their patents.

Android is the target of more than 37 lawsuits. Some are aimed directly at Google's partners, including Samsung, which may have to pay Microsoft $15 for every Android handset sold.

While the success of Android has become a lighting rod, Google isn't alone in the patent quagmire.

The cellular phone industry has become a copyright mess, with all players tossing innovation aside and engaging in an arms race to obtain intellectual property. Companies are challenging everything from the name of the "App Store" to builtin cameras and the technology behind gesture-based controls.

A perfect example of the increasing desperation in the industry is the recent outcome of the Nortel patent auction. Expected to bring in around $900 million, the auction ended with a consortium - led by the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion Ltd. - paying more than $4.5 billion U.S. for the former telecom giant's wireless patents. Of all the assets of the former Nortel, the patents proved the most valuable.

However, patents are the new gold standard in the technology world. The more a company has, the better positioned it will be to make new devices without fear of litigation from competitors - or to cut patent-sharing deals with those competitors. For example, if Microsoft sues Google for patent infringement, Google could counter by threatening to sue Microsoft for infringing on Google's patents. It's absurd, but it's how things work nowadays.

Google needs patents and, in this acquisition, it gets a gold mine. Motorola has been in the cellular business since 1983 when it introduced the world to the DynaTAC 8000X, the world's first consumer cellphone. Google gets access to a collection of cellular patents three times the size of the Nortel portfolio, which is likely why Google is paying almost three times what its competitors paid for Nortel's intellectual property.

The other thing Google gets is a very capable device-maker. While Motorola has been slumping recently, the company has produced some of the most revolutionary cellphones in history, from the Dyna-TAC to the Razr series, which sold more than 130 million units over four years in the mid-2000s, making it the most popular clamshell phone ever. On top of that it recently released the critically acclaimed Xoom tablet PC.