Microsoft et al. don't want Google to have the patents usuable against them. Either outbidding or co-owning works. Microsoft had enough patents that it was mor

Microsoft et al. don't want Google to have the patents usuable against them. Either outbidding or co-owning works. Microsoft had enough patents that it was more important Google did not have the patents for itself than for Microsoft to add to its own arsenal. Google might have instead accused Microsoft of denying it leverage, in the face of Microsoft et al.'s mountain of existing patents, but at the time that probably seemed a verbose way of making the same point: that Android's competitors would like to kill it with patents. (We haven't list sight of the fact that B&N, HTC, and others have been targeted for using Android, while the same can't be said for WP7 licensees, have we?)