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Google Buys Some Java Patents Off IBM

Whether any of them can defuse Oracle’s massive Java infringement suit against Google & its Android operating system is unclear
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
September 16, 2011 07:15 AM EDT
Reads:
 2,783

Google has bought what appears to be another 1,023 patents from IBM, a transfer recorded by the US Patent and Trademark Office Wednesday and noticed by Bloomberg, which said Google bought them on August 17.

The PTO also transferred 1,030 patents from IBM to Google in July after Google lost the auction for 6,000-odd Nortel patents to the combined might of Apple, Microsoft, RIM, Ericsson, Sony and EMC and their $4.5 billion.

The blog SEO by the Sea flipped through the latest IBM haul and says the batch includes a bunch of Java and scripting-based patents.

Whether any of them can defuse Oracle's massive Java infringement suit against Google and its Android operating system is unclear.

Otherwise the blog says "the range of inventions is pretty broad, including desktop and server hardware, computer security, database processes, circuit design, parallel database systems and architecture, user authentication, credit card/smartcard testing." There are also some phone and wireless-based patents as well as web and search-related patents.

The blog also says most of them appear to be original to IBM but a few started out with Cognos, the Canadian BI house IBM acquired in 2007.

Nobody's saying what Google paid in either case.

See http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/09/google-ibm-patents-august/.

Published September 16, 2011 – Reads 2,783
Copyright © 2011 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara

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