I'm cynical, but several hundred thousand patents are issued every single year, if you don't get one then your competitors will. You don't have to release a pr

I'm cynical, but several hundred thousand patents are issued every single year, if you don't get one then your competitors will. You don't have to release a profitable product, but to compete over the next several decades you are going to need to own valuable land in remote territories where patent wars being fought today. I'm guessing Google's meta-strategy is a type of patent-colonialism.