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Back in July of last year Google bought over 1,000 patents from IBM. Just a few short months later, in September, they picked up another bundle of over 1,000 patents. Now thanks to SEO by the Sea we can report that Google has called IBM yet again to buy some patents, though this time it’s a small bundle of just over 200 that were purchased during the last week of 2011. Said patents cover a wide range of topics, from “Method And Apparatus For Dynamically Modifying Web Page Display For Mobile Devices”, which sounds a lot like Opera Mini and Amazon Silk, to “Mobile Wireless Device Adaptation Based On Abstracted Contectual Situation Of User Using Near-Field Communications And Information Collectors”, which we’re not even going to pretend to understand. Assuming Google’s acquisition of Motorola goes through, and we have no reason to suspect that it wouldn’t, then that would mean Google picked up nearly 27,000 patents last year from just two companies. Don’t forget Google’s other acquisitions such as SayNow and countless others.
Now what exactly is Google going to do with all these patents? Simple really, they want to protect themselves from companies such as Apple and Microsoft, two of their fiercest competitors who want to see Android, and Google itself, vanish off the face of the earth. Now can you imagine how many engineers Google could have picked up with the amount of money that they blew on these legal documents? It’s a sad state of affairs, our patent system, and we’ve been wanting to see the government do something about the situation since before we even started IntoMobile, but alas we’ve got nothing to report on any proposals to fix the law.
All that being said, how many insane patents spats do you think we’re going to see over the next 12 months, especially now that Apple has a new CEO at the helm, Google is innovating faster than ever, and Nokia will try and break into North America?
[Via: PhoneScoop]
About The Author
Stefan Constantinescu
Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.
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