Tech giant Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) often finds itself in court over one matter or another. From patents to practices, some government agency often objects to something or other. Now, it’s a matter of patents in artificial intelligence (AI), but investors aren’t letting it get them down. Alphabet is up fractionally in Tuesday morning’s trading.
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The latest trial sees Alphabet’s Google arm taking on a court in Boston, where a federal jury will take on a case involving patents from Singular Computing. More specifically, the patents in question relate to processors Alphabet uses to drive artificial intelligence in several of its products.
The products, meanwhile, range from Google Translate to Gmail and even Google Search itself, among others, which is a substantial portion of Google’s online service operation. Singular Computing, not surprisingly, is seeking substantial damages that would represent a new record win for a patent infringement case: $7 billion.
Google’s Lawyers are Keeping Busy
Google’s lawyers aren’t just fighting defensively. They—along with lawyers from X and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)—are taking on the state of Ohio regarding a law that requires children under the age of 16 to get parental consent to open an account on social media. The group alleges that such a move is unconstitutional, and constitutional protections apply to minors, too. Rather, the group offers “educational resources” that allow individual users and families accordingly to “…determin(e)…the best approach to online services and privacy protections for themselves.”
Is Alphabet a Buy, Sell, or Hold
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOG stock based on five Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 58.47% rally in its share price over the past year, the average GOOG price target of $158.60 per share implies 11.69% upside potential.
