Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Weighs In On Patent Issues: They?re ?Terrible?

Eric Schmidt, Google's Executive Chairman and former CEO, took the stage at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco today to talk about a host of topics, including the success of Google Apps, his feelings about Steve Jobs, Google's recent acquisition of Motorola, with the conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff even ranging into Schmidt's thoughts on the current landscape facing the U.S. patent market. The executive chairman began by addressing the purchase of Nortel Networks' roster of patents by a group of buyers that included some of Google's rivals, including Microsoft and Apple. Fellow TechCruncher MG Siegler covered the back-and-forth between Google and Microsoft that unfolded in regard to the supposition that the group that bought the Nortel patents was effectively attempting to cut the legs out from underneath Android.

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