You're absolutely correct about the suing remark. I should have said "He can't have a valid basis for suing..." If he shared Patented information, Google would

You're absolutely correct about the suing remark. I should have said "He can't have a valid basis for suing..." If he shared Patented information, Google would not have free access to use it. A great deal new ideas are patentable (though I hear the process can be a nightmare), but whether or not the Google Sky concept was patented is not the issue. Like I said before, I am pretty sure Google would have had some sort of clause that allowed them to use anything this contractor came up with as a consequence of working at/with/for Google. And if he used an internal Google discussion board (presumably used by those working for Google to share information) to discuss the concept, then Google should and probably does have a legally defensible right to use those ideas for its own purposes.