[Henry Hnyellar]

Do a patent search on Apple and Google over the 10, 15, 20 years. You pick. Get back to us with the results. You currently speak from ignorance.

[Rebel_Ace]

"Do a patent search on Apple and Google over the 10, 15, 20 years. You pick. Get back to us with the results..."

Well, a quick GOOGLE search pulled up this on the very first page, an article comparing "the big 3" of Microsoft, Apple and Google.

Article Comparing Patent Filings of Microsoft, Apple and Google

According to the article, which looks at number of patent filings and quality of patent filings, they rate them as the following for QUANTITY:

"Microsoft filed very few patents until about 2005, after which patent filings increased dramatically, peaking at about 3000 per year in 2008. They now have almost twice as many patents as Apple, with Google sitting between the two."

With respect to a more subject analysis of QUALITY, they have the following graphic:



So there is at least some justification for rating them in the order of:

(1) Google
(2) Apple
(3) Microsoft
by QUALITY.

However, in either QUANTITY or QUALITY, apparently Google surpasses Apple, based on the findings reported here.

I did not look up these patents, I am just passing along the first thing I found when I bothered to look.

[norwaypinesavage]

"Do a patent search on Apple and Google over the 10, 15, 20 years. You pick. Get back to us with the results."

Google has little manufacturing overlap with Apple. If you compare Apple patents with other hardware manufactures such as Samsung or Nokia, Apple has such a trivial few that they hardly can compare on the same graph (Each has more than ten TIMES as many patents as Apple).