Google Rejects Skyhook’s Allegations Over Phone-Location Service

Google rejected allegations that it undermined plans by Samsung Electronics and the former Motorola to use a competing location-finding service on Android-based mobile phones.

Skyhook Wireless, a closely held software company, claimed in a September lawsuit that Motorola and Samsung were willing to pay for its service until Google threatened to cut off the phonemakers’ access to third-party applications in the Android Market. Motorola and Samsung rely on Google’s Android operating system for some of their devices. Google said it did nothing improper with regard to any contracts Skyhook had with the phonemakers, according to a May 13 filing in response to the lawsuit in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Superior Court in Boston. The service, a software system that uses Wi-Fi positions, GPS and cell-tower triangulation to pinpoint a phone’s location, is used by advertisers and businesses to target potential customers.