[yapcguy]

Google has too much money, too much time and too much employee deadwood on its hands.

Why would anyone even bother patenting this? It would have required the employee to ask their boss who would then have to pass it up the chain of command before legal looks over it and clears it for submission to the patent office.

Fire them all!

[adestefan]

Because every time they make really good one everyone says, "Did you see today's Google doodle?" If you can keep other people from doing the same thing, then it keeps them from driving traffic to their site.