Comment Free software (Score 1) 386
Google believes that Microsoft's and Apple's purchases of patents are anticompetitive, and that the mobile patents they own are bogus. To combat this, Google is going to acquire its own (bogus?) patents.
Well, yes. That's not the first time a company says the patent system is broken and they have to get bogus patents just to defend themselves.
Arguably, by "dumping" Android in the market at no cost, Google--which has unlimited cash and can afford to do such a thing--is behaving in an anticompetitive fashion. In fact, one could argue that Google is using its dominance in search advertising to unfairly gain entry into another market by giving that new product, Android, away for free.
How do you make a monopoly with Free Software? Google doesn't control Android, anybody can make their own version, and integrate it with their own services. If you're afraid they use Android to promote use of the other Google services, you can just make a version of Android that integrates with Microsoft's online offering.