217

Google got a late Christmas present from IBM last week when it purchased 217 patents from the company in areas such as data caching, video conferencing, instant messaging software and network performance. The transfer of the patents — 188 already granted with a further 29 pending — was noted by SEO by the Sea blogger Bill Slawski, who points out that this isn’t a one-off show of co-operation between the companies; Google has acquired more than 2,000 former IBM patents since July 2011. The patent office officially recorded the transactions, which took place December 28, two days later.

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