I read that article and it turned out that there is only a hand full of patents that are real real valuable and worth serious money. But google is going after the whole package. Will be interesting to see what googles long term plan is. They should just stick to what they know best.....and that is web search.
Google gets sued everyday for patent infringement. The purchase of Motorola will allow them to develop new product/technology without the law suits, and a without paying other tech giants for licensing.
It's all about MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction. Since Apple has a patent for a rectangle with a touch screen (no I am not kidding), Google needs patents to threaten them back with.
The whole IP law and Patent system is really quite convoluted and ineffective. It's only real use is to allow you to sue the competition and protect your dominance.
The patent system has created a whole new species of bottom feeder known as the Patent Troll. Here is a business model where the point is not to invent, innovate, or create but rather to buy patents and then sue people who they think may fit the patents description. When Google has major players like Apple and Microsoft gunning to take the Android platform down then Google had no choice but to fight back.