Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is in Seoul attending the launch of the Nexus 7 in Korea Thursday, and he’s been very talkative on a number of topics, as he was in Tokyo earlier in the week. This time around, he spoke out about patent problems, the search giant’s relationship with Apple, and Samsung at a launch event at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul.
“Literally patent wars prevent choice, prevent innovation and I think that is very bad,” Schmidt said, according to a report from the Korea Times. ”We are obviously working through that and trying to make sure we stay on the right side of these issues. So ultimately Google stands for innovation as opposed to patent wars.”
“I think one of the worst things that happened in the last few years has been the belief that somehow there are so many patents in the mobile phone world, an estimated 200,000 patents that are overlapping and complicated and so forth, that one vendor can stop the sale of another vendor’s phones or devices,” he added.
