Google acquires 1,023 IBM patents to further strengthen Android defense

Following-up on the previous report that the search giant has agreed to purchase Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion that gives Google more than 17,000 patents in the United States to defend its mobile OS Android against lawsuits. Bloomberg reported that Google also buys 1,023 IBM Patents to bolster defense of the open-source mobile platform. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recorded the transfer on August 17th. However, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Google's attempted purchase of these patents was apparently meant to help their partners who are Android manufacturers including Samsung, Motorola, HTC that have each been targeted in lawsuits by Apple and Microsoft.

That isn't the only lawsuit that has been filed in relation to Android. Oracle has filed a lawsuit against Mountain View-based Google, charging that its Android OS infringes Oracle patents and copyrights related to Java. An analyst Florian Mueller on his blog wrote that "A countersuit by Google against Oracle would likely result in further escalation, given that Oracle owns more than 20,000 patents and could probably attack Google in Java-unrelated ways."

As a reminder, Last month Google wrote a blog post titled "When patents attack Android". David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer on the Official Google Blog, said "Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it."

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