Google is suing British telecoms group BT, claiming infringements of a number of technology patents.
The search giant claims four patents have been violated, and has filed cases against the firm in California and London. It is the first time Google has launched a case against another company over patents.
BT and Google are already involved in a legal dispute launched by BP in 2011, which has yet to be resolved.
“We have always seen litigation as a last resort, and we work hard to avoid lawsuits,” said a spokeswoman for Google. “But BT has brought several meritless patent claims against Google and our customers – and they’ve also been arming patent trolls.”
“Patent trolls” are firms that acquire patents in order to extract settlements for infringements at a later date.
BT said it would not comment on the case.
