Mashable has an infographic on the recent patent wars. Winding its way from the early conceptions of patent rights to trends in patent filings and ending with recent patent tiffs involving tech companies like Apple, Microsoft and Samsung.
Google executives said that a major reason they were willing to pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility [1] is for the 17,000 issued patents and an additional 7,500 pending patents the company holds.
Earlier, a consortium of Apple, Microsoft, RIM, Sony, and others bought over 6000 patents from Nortel [2] — beating out an offer by Google.
Patents continue to be at the center of the technology universe. Last year, 107,792 patents were issued by the U.S. alone.
[3]
Via: Business Insurance Site [4]