Google grabs yet more patents from IBM war chest
Instant message take-back IP among new lawsuit ammo
Posted in Management, 4th January 2012 17:33 GMT
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Google continues to fill up its sack of patents, once again with the help of IBM, bagging scores of patents from the tech titan.
The Chocolate Factory already loaded its litigation guns with 2,053 patents from IBM in two transactions in July and August last year, and now records at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) show a further 222 patents moving over to Google.
Neither IBM nor Google has ever released information on the money changing hands for these intellectual property (IP) transactions.
The search engine giant wasn't all that interested in patents before Android, but since entering the lucrative smartphone sector, finding itself popular and promptly getting indirectly sued by Apple, Google has started acquiring what IP it can in order to protect its mobile OS.
Apple has a large number of patent suits on the go against Android phones, usually through manufacturing partners like Samsung, Motorola and HTC, rather than directly against Google.
As well as tapping IBM for patents, Google also expects to come into around 17,000 patents if its marriage with Motorola Mobility is approved.
Google had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
The latest lot of IBM patents, first reported by website SEO by the Sea, include ones that deal with emailing, calendars and web apps, as well as a number of patents to do with wireless telephony.
They also include some IP that Google could use for future features in its offerings, including a method to retrieve an instant message sent by mistake, a way to predict future travel times on a transportation network and a process to contextualise your smartphone by giving it information about where you are and what you're doing using near-field communications and "information collectors" - all of which could make some nifty apps.
Aside from stuff that might be good for the user, the Chocolate Factory has also picked up some patents that could help its bottom line, such as a method of playing audible advertisements to mobile users before they make a call. ®
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COMMENTS
This sort of action
shows why the patent system is broken.
Mental exercises, algorithms, programmes should be COPYRIGHT, not patented.
If software patents had been used in 1981/2 there would not have been a PC clone. BIOS would have remained firmly in the hands of IBM.
The first time my mobile plays an advert to me when I go to make a call will be the first time it gets flying lessons FFS
I can just hear it
person - help, my house is burning down and three people are trapped in it
Smart phone - Before this call can be made, you must listen to a 5 minute commercial on weenie enhancement. To improve your love life...........
The difference is that Apple is suing to stop Android, whereas Microsoft is not actually suing, as far as I know - the Microsoft lawyers are striking deals with various android manufacturers to get a cut of the revenue. I've no doubt that the threat of a lawsuit plays a role in those negotiations, but I don't think Microsoft has asked the courts for injunctions in any of these cases yet.
Optional
And the recent arrival of the new-look gmail is proof that Goggle is stupid enough to actually implement this feature. I swear, someone thought it was a good idea to have zones with scroll bars that only appear when you point the mouse at the zone in question, and someone else thought it was OK to let this be released. And having the "compose" button in red, the "stop, danger" colour (OK, beer makes composing emails dangerous, but not all gmail users are drunk enough to need this) is just moronic, mitigated only by the fact that there are sane themes that don't have it in red.
And now I can't turn it off. Grr.
Sorry, needed to vent again. At least they left the ads all the way over there on the right, where I can't see them because I'm looking at the left-hand-side of the window, where the mail is.
FAIL icon for Goggle.
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