Google slapped by FTC, forced to license Motorola patents WASHINGTON - Google will stop abusing patents it purchased from Motorola, U.S. antitrust regulators announced Thursday, following a 20-month investigation into Google's business practices. But the company did not abuse its position by favoring its own practices. The patents allow mobile phones such as the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy to communicate, explained FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in a press conference to unveil the outcome of the high-profile probe. Years ago, Motorola promised to license its patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to any interested manufacturer. Google will stop misappropriating or scraping its rivals [for its search results]. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz Other companies took Motorola at its word, Leibowitz said. Yet Motorola -- and later Google -- did not stick to that promise. "We stopped that abuse," Liebowitz said. In 2012, Google paid about $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility (MMI), including MMI's patent portfolio of over 24,000 patents and patent applications. Development and use of these types of standards is a cornerstone for many high-tech markets, and encourages innovation and investment in high-tech products, according to the FTC's complaint. In a statement posted to its website, Google said it was pleased with the outcome of the case. "We've always accepted that with success comes regulatory scrutiny," wrote David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer. The company agreed to seek the help of a third party to resolve patent disputes, he noted. The rest of the finding was a vindication for Google, Drummond seemed to say. We're pleased that the FTC and the other authorities that have looked at Google's business practices ... have concluded that we should be free to combine direct answers with web results. "The conclusion is clear: Google's services are good for users and good for competition," Drummond wrote. Beyond patents, the FTC's investigation focused on allegations that Google has been abusing its dominance in Internet search. Google's rivals say the company has been highlighting its own services on its influential search results page while burying the links to competing sites. Prominent display of Google's proprietary content had the collateral effect of pushing the "ten blue links" of organic search results that Google had traditionally displayed farther down the search results page, many unnamed "vertical" websites alleged. "Evidence does not support the claim" that prominent display of its own links were favoring its own sites, he said. Google nonetheless plans to make some changes. "The facts weren't there under the laws we apply," he added later. Google rivals such as Microsoft have been loudly complaining about the company's techniques for years. On Wednesday, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel Dave Heiner wrote that Google was preventing his company from releasing a full-featured version of YouTube on the Microsoft Phone platform, for example. Google often says that the antitrust offenses with which it has been charged cause no harm to consumers. Google is wrong about that," he wrote. Google has also been abusing information from rival websites, Leibowtiz said, scraping Yelp reviews, for example, and leading consumers to believe they were their own. Google allegedly threatened to remove results entirely rather than clarify where they came from, he said. "Google will stop misappropriating or scraping its rivals" for its search results, he said. Under a separate commitment, Google has agreed to remove restrictions on the use of its online search advertising platform, AdWords, that may make it more difficult for advertisers to coordinate online advertising campaigns across multiple platforms, the FTC announced. "Google is clearly one of the innovators in its field," Leibowitz said. The settlement will allow the company to focus on what it does best, he noted. We really do follow the facts where they lead, apply our statues faithfully, and do it with appropriate vigor and restraint," Leibowitz said.