Google Buys IBM Patents 72
pbahra writes "Google said Friday that it has purchased technology patents from IBM as the Web-search giant stocks up on intellectual property to defend itself against lawsuits. 'Like many tech companies, at times we'll acquire patents that are relevant to our business,' a Google spokesman said in a statement. The purchase was reported earlier by the blog SEO by the Sea, which said Google in mid-July recorded the acquisition of more than 1,000 patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patents involve the 'fabrication and architecture of memory and microprocessing chips,' computer architecture including servers and routers and online search engines, among other things. The Google spokesman declined to comment on the purchase price. It wasn't immediately clear which of the patents might be useful to Google to shield against lawsuits."
Re:From innovation to consolidation (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the real sign they run out of innovation is they begin to sue people or businesses for "using their ideas" rather than moving on to new ones. Call be back when Google starts doing this.