Google Rolls Out Ambitious Plan to Acquire Patents
By Rob Scott
August 2, 2011
August 2, 2011
- Google has purchased more than 1,000 patents from IBM, its most recent step in what the Los Angeles Times describes as “an arms race for patents.”
- The acquisition is part of an effort to strengthen its intellectual-property portfolio and avoid legal assault.
- It may also bolster the legal buffer surrounding its Android mobile OS court showdown with Oracle set for October.
- Google has some 700 patents (mostly for search engine technology) while its competitors, especially those in the mobile industry, have thousands.
- “Patents are instruments of war. Companies are acquiring patents to both defend their market share and to countersue competitors,” suggests technology patent valuation specialist Alexander Poltorak, chief executive of General Patent Corp. “Google neglected patents for many years because it did not realize that they were essential business tools. It can no longer neglect them.”
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