In the last week of 2011, Google bought  217 patents from IBM in a deal that was officially recorded at the patent office on December 30, 2011.

The patent transaction was discovered by a reader who wishes to remain anonymous, via the United States Patent Trade Office (USPTO) database.  It was for 188 granted patents and 29 printed patent pendings, across quite a large range of technological areas being covered by what's been bought.  Things like network performance, email administration and instant messaging client functionality are all in place; but there also seems to be a significant lean towards covering phone and mobile technologies. 

Our source said that the USPTO database does not disclose terms of acquisition (price, discussion, etc); but this is definitely not the first time that Google and IBM have gone into the patent business, with transfers of over 2,000 patents in the last year alone.

We've taken a few of the key patents which could affect key products strongly (i.e. Android):

• Handling Location Determinations In A Telecommunications Network To Reduce Subscriber-Experienced Latency While Conserving Network Resources (US Patent # 7783279)
• Computer Phone (US Patent # 7499726)
• Customizing And Distributing Advertisments To Mobile Devices On A Communication Network (US Patent # 8024223)
• System And Method For Manufacturing And Updating Insertable Portable Operating System Module (US Patent # 7225440)
• Method And Apparatus For Dynamically Modifying Web Page Display For Mobile Devices (US Patent # 7400316)
• Mobile Wireless Device Adaptation Based On Abstracted Contectual Situation Of User Using Near-Field Communications And Information Collectors (US Patent # 7729689)
• Transfer Of Web Applications Between Devices (US Patent # 7526559)
• Using Semantic Networks To Develop A Social Network (US Patent # 7865592)
• Voice Based Keyword Search Algorithm (US Patent # 7809564)
• Wireless Telephone System Including Voice Over Ip And Pots (US Patent # 7492758)
• Wireless Telephone System Including Voice Over Ip And Pots (US Patent # 7590106)
• Wireless Telephone System Including Voice Over Ip And Pots (US Patent # 7710946)
• Wireless Telephone System Including Voice Over Ip And Pots (US Patent # RE42271)