[eykanal]

You're highlighting the difference between "in principle" and "in practice". Probably all these companies think that in principle the patent system is screwed up; they spend BILLIONS of dollars buying and litigating patents, and most likely every single one of these companies would rather spend the cash on R&D or something more useful. However, in practice a company that does this is going to suffer, and suffer badly.

The complaint against Google is their whining. Yes, they don't like the patent system. Yes, they also aggressively bid pi billion to increase their patent portfolio. However, complaining afterwards that the problem is with the "other guys" is just stupid. Complain about the system, OK; it's a messed up system, we all know that. Complain about the other guy, when you were just doing the exact same thing a minute ago, now you're just a whiner, and you should grow up.

[nextparadigms]

If the others think the system is broken "in practice" then they should also push for abolishing software patents, whether they do it together with Google or separately.