Google buys 1,000 IBM patents

DESPITE DECRYING the existence of software patents early last week, Google has splashed out on over 1,000 technology patents from IBM.

The "Don't be evil" internet search and advertising broker was rubbishing software patents last week and working out what path it should take through the bodies that it found in their wake.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Google general counsel Kent Walker compared patent purchases and their resulting use as a battlefield and added that it is hard to find a way through the "mess" of litigation.

"It's hard to find what's the best path - there's so much litigation," said Walker. "We're exploring a variety of different things."

One of those things, apparently, was the plan to buy patents from IBM. "Like many tech companies, at times we'll acquire patents that are relevant to our business," a Google spokesman said in a statement released this weekend to the Wall Street Journal after the patents haul came to light.

The acquisition was discovered by the SEO by the Sea web site, which reported that Google bought over 1,000 patents.

The web site lists some of the more interesting patents. These include one covering a System And Method Of Using Data Mining Prediction Methodology, and another - that sounds particularly apt for Google but a bit land-grabby for its previous owner - System And Method For Maintaining Up-To-Date Link Information In The Metadata Repository Of A Search Engine.

Google recently lost out in the auction for Nortel's patents to a cartel involving some software patent bullies including Apple and Microsoft. µ