Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos has expressed his concern in the continuous amount of patent lawsuits in the mobile industry coming into fruition.
Bezos stressed that he's worried that the sheer amount of patent lawsuits "might start to stifle innovation", and suggested that governments should get involved in order to protect consumers.
"Governments may need to look at the patent system and see if those laws need to be modified because I don't think some of these battles are healthy for society," Bezos said in an interview with Metro.
Amazon itself experienced a lawsuit from Smartphone Technologies for purportedly violating patents in its Kindle Fire tablet. However, aside from that, it has stayed clear of lawsuits, while firms such as Microsoft, Apple, Samsung and Motorola all battle against each other through its batch of patent disputes.
"One thing that we are very seriously taking a look at is the question of software patents, and whether in fact the patent system as it currently exists is the right system to incent innovation and really promote consumer-friendly policies," Google's Pablo Chavez said. He also told attendees at a Technology Policy Institute conference that "patent wars are not helpful to consumers".
Last year, the smartphone industry alone spent $20 billion on patents, with spending by both Apple and Google on patents exceeded its spending on research and development of new products, representing the first time that has occurred in both company's history.
Google in particular spent $12.5 billion on Motorola Mobility last year in order to acquire its patents so it could further protect its Android platform.
