Make no mistake. Google doesn’t care about most of the things they patent. In a world of “defensive patenting,” Google’s recent bid to buy Nortel’s patent portfolio is simply designed to give them more bulk and ability to move forward with emerging products. Patent trolls have been emerging over the past couple of decades as a way of making money. They file patents, sit on them, and wait for a larger company to go about building whatever it is that they filed. After it reaches a point where they feel they can make money out of a settlement, they file a claim and attempt to get whatever money they can out of someone else’s work. In many cases, they never have any intention of actually creating or distributing the concept in question. They just hope someone else (such as Google, Apple, or Microsoft) build it so they can settle their way to riches. It’s despicable. Google is going for bulk. Despite being tagged as a huge company and being old in Internet years, they are still much younger and have a smaller portfolio than many companies such as Apple and Microsoft. This move, if it works, will strengthen their ability to fight trolls and help push forward innovations. On this issue, we’re behind Google 100%.