Losing the auction is more a failure of partnership than anything else. The Apple team included MS, Sony, RIM, Ericsson, and EMC, while the Google only teamed up with Intel. Where were all the Android partners?
There are enough companies with high enough stakes in Android (Google, Motorola, Samsung .. etc) that if they pooled patients for their common defense, they would make MUCH less inviting targets. Heck, isn't this what MS has been saying they would do with Linux for years? Doesn't this legal precedent concern the corporations that are dependent on Linux (which is probably a large majority of tech companies today) ?
patents and patent auctions is a long-term chess game..
Google knew ahead of time it did not have the $4 billion that might be bid by a group..it was not in it to win the auction but to use the auction as a bit of distraction among those potential groups that could file patent lawsuits as to enforce $4 billion in patents is not millions of dollars but more likely $1 billion in lawyer fees, etc..such resources is not built up over night even among big companies.
There are enough companies with high enough stakes in Android (Google, Motorola, Samsung .. etc) that if they pooled patients for their common defense, they would make MUCH less inviting targets. Heck, isn't this what MS has been saying they would do with Linux for years? Doesn't this legal precedent concern the corporations that are dependent on Linux (which is probably a large majority of tech companies today) ?