Facebook had a choice to make: With just 56 patents to its name at the start of 2012 it could pay its way out of Yahoo's infringement lawsuit with gobs of money and remain vulnerable to other patent attacks, or make a long-term investment into an intellectual property portfolio it could protect itself with for years to come. Facebook has wisely taken the second path, upping its patent stockpile to over 1,400 with today's $550 million cash purchase and licensing of 650 AOL patents from Microsoft today. These new patents cover email, instant messaging , web browsing, search, ads, mobile, and e-commerce, according to a source with direct knowledge of the purchase. Surely, Facebook might have gotten better deals on this cache from Microsoft and the package of 75o patents it bought from IBM had it not been so desperate, but better late than never. Now with a healthy patent portfolio that I break down below, Facebook may be able to stop scrambling to buy IP, and can fend off the attack of any who would spoil and suck money from its IPO.brandon marshall iditarod nfl free agents 2012 encyclopedia brittanica nfl free agency jonbenet ramsey jason campbell
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