Bangalore: The latest batch of 217 patents that Google bought from IBM covers a range of topics, including those that are directly involved with mobility solutions and Smartphone technologies (such as the transfer of web applications between devices and voice based keyword searching). This could enable Google in race with Apple's Siri- the voice-based digital personal assistant, as predicted by TG Daily.
Others on the list bought, hinge on topics that range from presentation software, to server backup and from email optimization, to “Using semantic networks to develop a social network.”

William Stofenga, an analyst from IDC, said that it was hard to differentiate the patents for Google’s future development in technology, from the ones intended for litigation protection.

According to the blog SEO by the Sea, which first reported the purchase (based on data from the United States Patent and Trade Office assignment database), Google acquired 188 granted patents and 29 published pending patent applications from IBM, during the last week of 2011.
Bill Slawski, author of the blog, wrote that the terms of the acquisition including financial details were not available on the USPTO database. Moreover, neither Google nor IBM has made the details of their previous patent transactions public.

Last year alone, Google bought over 2000 patents off IBM, (which in turn, files around 5000 patents a year). Google’s ongoing acquisition of Mototorola Mobility (a deal for 12.5 billion dollars) will also result in the former inheriting around 17,000 patents.