Google ordered to pay as much as $1 billion to patent troll Vringo | VentureBeat | Business | by Eric Blattberg - In 2011, the company purchased two patents involving the ranking and placement of ads in search results from Lycos, an old search engine, which it used to sue Google.
I'm not sure why this is being described as a patent troll. If Google had paid Lycos what was due, they might still be in business. Patent trolls, to my mind, are companies that patent non-working, overly broad designs and then use the legal system to harass companies that make actual products. Lycos was an actual product. I used it extensively back in the 90s.
Imagine if you were the team that created Lycos. Wouldn't you want Google to pay on infringing designs?
