Google bids on stuff that stifle innovation

Today Google announced that it would bid $900 million dollars for patents from the Nortel bankruptcy. Google adds: " If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community—which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome—continue to innovate."

Thats noble! Its just that buying into bad patents send most companies into that fat cat stifling sweet-spot, purring over patents and patent investments. Lets just hope that Google wont feel obligated to defend this innovation policy patch investment in face of real reform when possible.

For a recent fat cat example, see Microsoft in this case:

“The Android platform infringes a number of Microsoft’s patents, and companies manufacturing and shipping Android devices must respect our intellectual property rights,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft corporate vice president and deputy general counsel. 

Hey ... I'm afraid its v e r y  difficult to respect intellectual property rights in those patents, see: 

Patent #5,778,372: “Remote retrieval and display management of electronic document with incorporated images.” July 7, 1998.

Patent #6,339,780: “Loading status in a hypermedia browser having a limited available display area.” Jan. 15, 2002.
Patent #5,889,522: “System provided child window controls.” March 30, 1999.
etc.
Full list on http://www.geekwire.com/2011/microsoft-cites-new-patents-vs-android 

Jonas