Mountain View, Calif. — Google is shoring up its intellectual property fortifications. After failing to get the Nortel patents it wanted, this time it succeeded in scoring over 1,000 of patents from IBM on Friday.
Google was recently in a bidding war between Apple, Microsoft and others for more than 6,000 patent filings from bankrupt telecom-equipment company Nortel Networks.
The IBM patent acquisition was first reported by Bill Slawski on his SEO by the Sea blog, and he continues to investigate precisely what it was the search and online advertising giant bought.
Google declined to comment on the purchase price, but noted that these purchases were necessary for the company. “Like many tech companies, at times we’ll acquire patents that are relevant to our business,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
The patents stretch across a number of different markets, including one for “the fabrication and architecture of memory and microprocessing chips” and the other for “Web-based querying.”
Facing lawsuits against their Android mobile operating system, this acquisition may well contain ammunition Google can use in its defense. The wide range of included patents indicates Google’s purpose is more than that, however.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3t5r5p7 (Wall Street Journal)
http://tinyurl.com/3u94p9l (SEO by the Sea)
