Google has snapped up 1000 patents from IBM ranging from those touching on web based querying to design and production of memory and microprocessing chips, and even some relating to routers and servers.
The search and software giant has been trying to pick up patents for quite some time now, recently losing out on its $900 million bid for bankrupt Nortel’s 6000 copyrighted assets to Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and others.
The great Goog then lost out again on an attempted acquisition of wireless firm InterDigital, so IBM’s car boot sale was a much needed win.
Google’s Achilles heel in the mobile industry is its distinct lack of patents, something which has allowed the firm to be scathingly attacked by jealous competitors like Microsoft and Apple.
Indeed, the cold war of mobile tech is shaping up to be a nasty, drawn out and complex affair, involving a plethora of smaller companies and being used as proxies to inflict damage on the big players.
Android affiliate HTC, for instance, has seen itself viciously attacked by Apple for patent infringement and Microsoft has also sued firms using Android with claims of copyright contravention in terms of “user experience.”
Thus, Google knows, if it wants any chance of fighting back, it must join the patent arms race before it’s too late, no matter how distasteful it finds the whole experience.
Recently, Google’s general counsel, Kent Walker, went on-record to give Google’s view that patent lawsuits were actually stifling innovation, not pulling his punches when it came to hitting back at the trolls.
“”Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival’s new technology,” he wrote in a company blog.
While that may well be true, Google realizes that taking the moral high ground won’t help it much in the mobile game and that if patent showdowns are on the cards, it’s best to show up with an arsenal of legal clout. Whether IBM’s patents prove to offer Google the protection it needs remains to be seen, but it’s a good start.
