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Google Bid Pi Billion Dollars For Nortel Patents

Posted by Soulskill on from the lighter-side-of-patent-news dept.

mikejuk writes "Google mystified other participants in an auction for patents last week by their choice of bids. They weren't the round regular numbers that are normally expected. After first bidding $1,902,160,540 — a reference to Brun's constant — and later bidding $2,614,972,128 for the Meissel-Mertens constant, they ended up submitting a bid for $3.14159 billion. Google ended up losing the auction — but was that a deliberate ploy?"

5 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. The deal fails when Nortel askes for exact change. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The deal fails when Nortel askes for exact change.

  2. Patents have irrational value by tdwebste · · Score: 5, Funny

    All these bids are irrational numbers.

    I think the message is clear. Patents have irrational value.

  3. Big pies by Groo+Wanderer · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's a big piece of pi.

                    -Charlie

  4. Pi by ukemike · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's a nice round number.

    --
    -- QED
    1. Re:Pi by Alex+Zepeda · · Score: 4, Funny

      I thought pie are square?

      --
      The revolution will be mocked