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Looks like Google and IBM are working together again to build up Google’s patent portfolio, from an update at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent assignment database. Details beyond the actual patents involved aren’t known yet. The last couple of times I wrote about large patent transactions between Google and IBM this past July and September, Google ended up sending out emails a few hours after my posts to a number of large media sites such as the New York Times, Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal, and a number of others disclosing the acquisitions. We’ll see if they do that again.
The last week of 2011, Google acquired 188 granted patents and 29 published pending patent applications from IBM, according to the USPTO assignment database, with an execution data on the assignment of the patents on December 28, 2011, in a deal that was officially recorded at the patent office on December 30, 2011.
The patents cover a broad range of topics, such as presentation software, blade servers, data caching, server load balancing, network performance, video conferencing, email administration, and instant messaging applications. A number of the patents cover specific internet, phone, and mobile phone technologies as well.
I pulled out a few patents that appear to involve web and telephone and mobile applications from their titles, including a javascript browser widget patent, but there may be more patent filings on those topics that don’t have very descriptive titles.
- Customizing And Distributing Advertisments To Mobile Devices On A Communication Network (US Patent # 8024223)
- Handling Location Determinations In A Telecommunications Network To Reduce Subscriber-Experienced Latency While Conserving Network Resources (US Patent # 7783279)
- Method And Apparatus For Dynamically Modifying Web Page Display For Mobile Devices (US Patent # 7400316)
- Mobile Wireless Device Adaptation Based On Abstracted Contectual Situation Of User Using Near-Field Communications And Information Collectors (US Patent # 7729689)
- Pipelined Architecture For Global Analysis And Index Building (US Patent # 7293005)
- Selecting And Rendering A Section Of A Web Page (US Patent # 7949935)
- System And Method For Generating High-Function Browser Widgets With Full Addressability (US Patent # 7269792)
- System And Method For Manufacturing And Updating Insertable Portable Operating System Module (US Patent # 7225440)
- Transfer Of Web Applications Between Devices (US Patent # 7526559)
- Using Semantic Networks To Develop A Social Network (US Patent # 7865592)
- Voice Based Keyword Search Algorithm (US Patent # 7809564)
- Wireless Telephone System Including Voice Over Ip And Pots (US Patent # 7492758)
- Wireless Telephone System Including Voice Over Ip And Pots (US Patent # 7590106)
- Wireless Telephone System Including Voice Over Ip And Pots (US Patent # 7710946)
- Wireless Telephone System Including Voice Over Ip And Pots (US Patent # RE42271)
- Computer Phone (US Patent # 7499726)
Google has been assigned a large number of patents from IBM in the past through a number of different transactions, many of which I wrote about here, such as:
- September, 2011 – 41 patent filings – Google Acquires More IBM Patents In September
- August, 2011 – 1,022 patent filings – Google and IBM do it again: Google Acquires over 1,000 Patents from IBM in August
- July, 2011 – 1,030 patent filings – Google Acquires Over 1,000 IBM Patents in July
- October, 2010 and April, 2011 – Google Self Driving Cars Get Jumpstart from IBM Patents
The USPTO database doesn’t include the terms of the acquisition such as the financial details, and neither Google nor IBM have disclosed those types of details publicly for their previous patent transactions.
And the patent wars heat up! Google’s playing catch up as all sides build up their armies of patents ready for war!
Interesting. I am sure this blog is visited regularly by them Bill.
Just curious. How in the world did you find out about the emails?
Its OK if you don’t disclose. I understand.
Mark
Hi Brett,
Google does seem pretty interested in letting its portfolio catch up to some of its biggest competitors. They’ve published some announcements on their blogs that one of the reasons for their acquisitions of patents was to help deter patent infringement cases being filed against them, especially by patent trolls.
I expect them to continue to acquire as many as they can.
Hi Mark,
Thanks. I had a number of reporters contact me to try to find out more about how I learned about the patent acquisitions, and to ask some questions. A few of them also noted in their articles that Google had contacted them to confirm their purchase as well.
[...] acquired 217 patents from IBM, according to SEO by the Sea. Google’s most recent acquisition of patents from IBM, completed in the last [...]
Hi Bill,
Do we have any idea how many patents google own so far? Looks like a pretty big number.
Google is doing crazy job to acquire new patents and I can understand it. They haven’t created anything that it patent worth so to keep competitive in patent wars they have to do something about it otherwise they will be spending millions of not billions for other companies that holds patents.
And as we all know Google like to copy and improve existing things, so working without the patents is like sitting on a powder keg.
[...] tech industry. A report on Tuesday revealed that the United States Patent and Trademark Office officially recorded Google’s acquisition of 188 granted patents and 29 published pending applications from IBM in [...]
Am I alone in thinking that all these patent things slowly get out of hand? Patent here, patent there … pff
[...] | SeobytheSea me gusta 0 Para votar identifícate o regístrate aquí. Tags: Google, Botón [...]
[...] has bought itself a couple hundred more patents to beef up its portfolio. SEO by the Sea reports that the search giant has purchased 188 granted patents and 29 patent pending applications [...]
[...] online calendars and transferring web apps between devices. The patent grab, first reported by SEO by the Sea and confirmed to Mashable by Google, potentially serves two purposes: providing avenues to develop [...]
[...] [via SEO by the Sea] [...]
[...] got a late Christmas present from IBM last week when it purchased 217 patents from the company in areas such as data caching, video conferencing, instant messaging software and network [...]
[...] SEO by the Sea, via Engadget // No Comments [...]
When will Google develop their own patents, instead of tracking everyone on the web?
Wao. This is awesome. Today only I landed up here at this blog. Read 10+ posts in a single shot. LOADS of information regarding SEO, Google, IBM … Oh my god. Bill you are great ! Coming back to this blog post. It’s strange to me that Google is buying patents from IBM. I didn’t know that IBM is such a great company in internet world as well. I’ll keep myself updated using this blog. Thanks seobythesea.com team for your efforts and sharing this HUGE, SEA-LEVEL knowledge with us!
[...] IBM Assigns 217 More Patent Filings to Google including Wireless Phones and Javascript Widgets, SEO By The Sea [...]
Interesting article. I wonder what direction Google will go and where they will be in a few years from now, until reading a different article this morning i was thinking they would take over the world, but just read that Siri (Apple’s product) is going to be the beginning of the end of Google. The thought is that you won’t even be going to a computer to search anything, you will be simply asking your phone or TV questions as you are walking around your home, office, etc.
[...] several patents from IBM. Search Engine giant has grabbed a total of 217 patents from IBM, reported Bill Slawski via an update on USPTO website.These patents are related to presentation software, data caching, [...]
That is so true, Bill. Google and IBM sure is racking up the patents in a frenzy. I think Google will continue rounding up patents as it tries to capture almost every tech perspective. And it sure doesn’t come as a surprise for us all that these involve mobile and internet technologies. Google seriously is going strong with their Android plans.
[...] Galaxy Tab in Australia for Christmas 2011…). Lately, two things came to my attention: Google acquired 200 patents from IBM. But, more interestingly: Google hasn’t filed any patents over the last several [...]
Google is going to be a leader in Mobile.
[...] SEO by the Sea blog found that Google acquired more than 217 patents from IBM at the end of 2011. Bill Slawski, author [...]
[...] 2011). The blog SEO by the Sea recently kicked off the latest round of headlines by noting a 217 IP asset transfer from Big Blue to the infinite pun. Neither IBM nor Google announced the deal, suggesting the blogger learned about the patent [...]
@ Mikhail : I’m not sure whether Google is going to be a leader in Mobile or not but 1 thing is sure that Google guys are trying to be at the helm. For that, they are trying their best. The standard of technologies has been changed drastically in last 7-8 years and with these kinda tie-ups and collaborations we’ll have some rocking products by companies like IBM , Google , Mac etc. Thanks Bill for sharing this patent deal with us. I didn’t know it.
It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes out of the near-field stuff…
It’s a further effort by IBM and Google to keep up with the Joneses. The more patents you carry, the more of a player you can be in this market. I have the Droid by Motorola with its Google partnership. Great product but it’s still not up to par with Apple. Hopefully Google’s efforts to become a bigger player will pay off. IB< is a good way to do it.
[...] eine Vorrauschau auf die Zukunft des Suchmaschinengiganten ermöglichen. Wie Bill Slawsky auf seobythesea.com zusammenfasst, hat Google erst kürzlich 217 weitere Patente gekauft, von denen viele [...]
[...] “giving” Google over 200 of their patents in a deal (as covered by Bill Slawski IMB Assigns Patent Filings to Google). This is being seen as a part of a strategy that many large companies adopt (not just Google) to [...]
[...] Assigns Over 200 Patents to Google SE Watch: According to a blog post by Bill Slawski at SEO By the Sea that references US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) filings, IBM has agreed to give Google 188 [...]
Hi Sylvain,
The USPTO assignment database lists 5137 assignments of patents and pending patent applications from Google, but that number doesn’t count:
Patents owned by Google that haven’t been assigned to them yet
Patents and patent applications that are still unpublished by the patent office
Patents that might be owned by Google that were assigned to them under different names, like those assigned to “Exaflop” (and there could possibly be others.
Patents filed outside of the United States in other countries that might not have been filed in the United States at this point
If the Motorola Mobility acquisition goes through, Google could potentially add another 17,000 + patents and pending and unpublished patent filings as well.
Hi Mike,
Google has developed and filed a good number of their own patents, and while many of those cover search related topics, they also have many involving other topics as well. But they have been increasingly involved in fields outside of search, from self driving cars, to mobile phone operating systems, tablet operating systems, and more.
Many of their competitors in those fields have been developing their own technologies and patenting them, and acquiring others for years, and some have a significant head start on on Google, like Apple and Microsoft.
Google’s Eric Schmidt said a few years ago when he was still CEO of Google that they won’t enter a field where they can’t innovate. I think that is often the case, and while some aspects of things that they develop might overlap with existing technologies in some ways, they do often seem to take unique approaches with what they are developing. Those areas of “overlap” do present the possibility of patent infringement litigation, and acquiring patents from others is one way to try to help protect them from that kind of litigation.
Hi Peter
I think it’s actually a good sign that we are seeing so many patents. It means that people are attempting to build new things, to create and innovate, to protect the things that they are building. What isn’t good is when bad patents are granted that really don’t cover things that are new, useful, and non-obvious. What’s even worse is when companies snap up patents solely for the purpose of collecting money from companies that might be using similar technology, and the patents turn from spurring innovation to stifling it.
Hi The1nChicago,
Google has been developing their own patents for years and years. If I had to make a rough guess at how many, it’s probably close to a couple of thousand.
Hi Santosh
Thank you for your very kind words.
IBM has been one of the most prolific filers of patents in the world the past few years, and the technology that they’ve patented covers an incredibly broad range of computer technology including both software and hardware and databases. They’ve also patented a large number of technology related business processes as well.
Google has built much of the technology behind its data centers, search engine software, and networking systems, and it looks like some of the IBM patents may cover some of those types of things. Google has been working with very large databases, and again the IBM patents that Google has acquired cover those types of topics as well. Google has been working on computer operating systems for mobile and handheld devices, television set top boxes, servers, and data centers, and again it’s likely that some of the IBM patents touch on those areas as well.
Hi Amber,
I don’t think that Siri will be the end of Google. It’s a voice recognition application that seems to work well, and was marketed well, but Apple hasn’t developed the kind of search technology that Google has, and Google has been working on its own voice recognition interface for a few years.
Hi Daniel,
It makes sense for Google to keep on acquiring technology patents for a wide range of technologies, to both protect them from potential patent infringement lawsuits and to use the technology in those patents when and where it make sense to do so. Apple may have had a headstart on Google when it comes to smart phones, but I think we all benefit from the competition between the two.
Hi Mikhail,
I think Google has a good chance of being a leader in mobile. I think they have no choice given the incredibly rapid rate of adoption of smart phones by people.
Hi Hitesh,
You’re welcome.
Google does seem to striving to be a leader in mobile. I was surprised myself when I checked the assignment database and saw this assignment of patents. I did a few searches on the Web to see if anyone else had run across the assignment, and didn’t see anything.
Hi Kentaro,
Google has been working on Near Field Communication for a while, and Google’s acquisition of Zetawire brought them a patent application that describes a very detailed set of processes in using and administrating NFC payment, advertising, and identity management systems. It’s really worth reading if you want to have an idea of how complete a system they’ve envisioned, including security issues, coupons, electronic wallet display, business card and receipt handling, and more.
Hi Felipe,
I’m not sure that Google is trying to keep up with the Jones. I think they are trying to be leaders as much as they can, and on a good number of levels they are succeeding. As Google’s Andy Rubin noted back on December 20th on Google Plus:
That seems pretty significant.
Interesting article. Google is working hard in order for the site to reach the long-time dream of becoming number 1 in every aspect – be it SMM or apps for industries.
Hi Maria,
Thank you. Google has been busy lately publishing a lot of their own patent applications, created by Google engineers as well.