[kenjackson]

Google is essentially the bitch of the patent world right now, simply because they're a younger company and a land claim occurred.

I think the real problem with Google is they're using open source technology. This makes yout a lot more susceptible to patent lawsuits.

Back when I used to control patent budgets one of our rules was that things we patented had to be discoverable. That is, if someone infringed, but it was hard to prove, it wasn't worth spending the money on a patent. Just keep it a trade secret. With Android everything is available by just looking at the source code repository. With iOS, WebOS, WP, and RIM, you have to do a fair bit more sleuthing to see if they're actually infringing.