Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) last month quietly purchased 1,030 patents from IBM (NYSE: IBM), covering a variety of technologies, including the architecture of microprocessors, servers, routers, relational databases and object-oriented programming. 

The search engine giant has offered little explanation for the acquisitions, although company officials lately have noted the growing threat of intellectual property lawsuits, reports InformationWeek's Paul McDougall. "Like many tech companies, at times we'll acquire patents that are relevant to our business needs. Bad software patent litigation is a wasteful war that no one will win," a Google spokesman told InformationWeek.

Some industry observers suspect that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which has made patent claims against makers of Android-powered phones, may eventually sue Google over the mobile operating system. Others speculate that Google may be preparing to introduce a new product line.

Google attempted to buy more than 6,000 patents from Nortel earlier in the year, but was outbid by a coalition of rivals, including Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson, Sony and RIM, notes Ann Bednarz at Network World. In placing its bid, Google said that it wanted to shield itself against IP litigation and enhance its innovation in the areas of the Android platform and other technologies.

For a blunt perspective on the motives behind the Google/IBM transaction, take a look at a post by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry at Business Insider. Noting that the purchase of patents does not in itself advance innovation, Gobry writes that the acquisition in fact detracts from invention.

"What Google did was buy abstract legal rights as a form of racketeering protection," Gobry writes. "No one in the software industry thinks software patents help innovation; instead, they hamper it. Instead of buying inventions, what Google did--was forced to do, like all other tech companies--was spend money that could have gone to invention and instead spend it on what is essentially an enormous innovation tax."

For more:
- see Paul McDougall's article at InformationWeek
- see Ann Bednarz's article at Network World
- see Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry's post at Business Insider

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