Re: @ AC's
"this was Google responding to MS / Apple / Rim purchase a few months before a thousands of patents which they could see being used against them / their partners and Android."
Presumably, you're talking about the ones acquired by the Nortel patent auction. Google certainly did say that deal was anti-competitive and that the winners had paid over the market odds. Presumably, if Google’s own bid had won, it wouldn’t have complained about this being anti- competitive. The accusation about the consortium paying over the odds, IIRC, was based on an initial valuation from Google and again IIRC, it seemed to be a ‘plucked from the air’ amount.
I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that Microsoft later said it had approached Google over the Nortel patent auction about working together but Google wasn’t interested. If that was the case, it doesn’t quite fit the narrative that several greedy companies ganged up on another greedy company, I mean, a lovable underdog that would rather make a friend that a dollar. Google was caught with its pants down over the Nortel auction, pure and simple.
The idea that there are good guys when it comes to companies building up patent war chests is nice, but they’re all just sharks.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
