[Polyphonie]

I remember reading the article. I found this to be quite interesting:

“In 2012, Google arrived on the list of top-spending Washington, D.C., lobbyists—a list typically stalked exclusively by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, military contractors, and the petro-carbon leviathans. Google entered the rankings above military aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, with a total of $18.2 million spent in 2012 to Lockheed’s $15.3 million. Boeing, the military contractor that absorbed McDonnell Douglas in 1997, also came below Google, at $15.6 million spent, as did Northrop Grumman at $17.5 million.”

[hexagonc]

Google may be the largest individual contributor within the list you cite -- and not by much -- but it is still greatly exceeded by the combined contribution of the military contractors. And Google being a top contributor may not be such a bad thing; who else on that list is going to lobby for patent reform?