I was actually very surprised they didn't do this to begin with in the Nortel case, especially since the patents being bought would've helped all of them. The r

I was actually very surprised they didn't do this to begin with in the Nortel case, especially since the patents being bought would've helped all of them. The risk was simply too high for Google even if it was only Apple bidding against them, without all the others. Apple has twice as much cash as they do, and if Apple really wanted the patents, there's nothing Google could've done. They need to set up a patent pool with their Android partners, and then start bidding together for other patents as well. This would probably be the most effective strategy that they can relatively quickly implement. As for buying RIM together with other companies, I suppose Google could spend a big part of their money to buy it, and then they'll sell the hardware division to Samsung or whoever, the other divisions to other companies, and keep only the patents for themselves. But they'll have to make the deals prior buying RIM, so they can make their money back later.