Yes, and Google admitted as much when they bought them, but they are using thier troll only to go after the people lIke MSoft and Apple who went on thier OWN patent-buying spree to try to litigate Android out of existance. This surface lawsuit is payback for the Microsoft-Samsung settlement that makes Samsung pay MS $10 per device to "license" some utterly BS patents they bought at auction.

Google's goal is to create so many "you pay us , but we have to pay you" arrangements that the whole sector just says "Fark it" , declares a truce and signs a general cross license of all applicable patents.

The hang up is that Apple and MS' interests do not align here. Google is a search company that wants to push out smart devices as cheaply as possible on the theory that the more hands they put mobile internet in the more traffic google gets so the more ad revenue they make

Apple and to a lesser extent, MS are device makers and derive their income from getting a premium price for the sale of thier gadgets and want to make sure competitors can't undercut their prices.

I love how people on FARK think Apple is the only company that sues on patents. Google does it and all the other companies do it too. But you'd never now based on FARK headlines and threads until now.