A consortium of major technology companies has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google and seven Android manufacturers.

The complaint was filed in the US District Court for Eastern Texas by Rockstar Consortium, which in 2011 outbid Google to pay $ 4.5 billion for the patent portfolio of Nortel. The lawsuits also targeted Asustek, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung and ZTE.

The consortium includes some of Google’s main rivals, including Microsoft and Apple, as well as RIM, Ericsson and Sony.

While Google and Android manufacturers have faced a litany of patent lawsuits in the past, the new action could potentially threaten the core of Google’s business, claiming that Google had violated a patent used to provide advertisements based on a user’s search terms.

The plaintiffs claimed that the fact that Google tried to buy the patents in question indicated that it was engaged in willful infringement.

“Despite losing in its attempt to acquire the patents-in-suit at auction, Google has infringed and continues to infringe the patents-in-suit despite its knowledge of the patents-in-suit and the objectively high likelihood that its actions constitute patent infringement,” the complaint said.