Google Acquires 217 Patents From IBM

The Google-Motorola deal granted Mountain View access to the phone-maker's broad portfolio of patents which got even larger with the recent acquisition of 217 additional ones from IBM.

While the new patents could further defend Google and its partners in lawsuits involving intellectual property, among the newly acquired ones seem to be a couple which could help Google develop further offerings. Email management, online calendars and transferring web apps between devices are just some of the many different patents now owned by the Android-maker. Add to those patents related to "presentation software, blade servers, data caching, server load balancing, network performance, video conferencing, email administration, instant messaging applications" and the list could go on.

One patent in particular -- U.S. Patent 7,865,592 -- refers to "using semantic networks to develop a social network". In plain English, it could help a member of a social network find other, similar and "like-minded" users. This could give Google+ a boost especially through the new abilities in finding experts in a specific field that aren't otherwise visible in your networ