• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, August 4, 2011

Google thinks its rivals are conspiring against Android. Saying as much, Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond has charged Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and "other companies" with colluding against Android by buying up essential patents.

"Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other's throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what's going on," Drummond wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. "Google just tossed gas on the already heated patent wars over smart-phone technologies," writes The Los Angeles Times.

But, as Reuters reports, Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith disputed Drummond's version on the Novell patent issue on Twitter. "Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no," Smith tweeted in response to the blog.

"While it's only one instance, this really does undercut Google's entire argument," TechCrunch writes. As such, CNNMoney.com suggests that Drummond's "angry screed" could perhaps "be remembered as one of the most misguided briefs any high-tech lawyer has ever written."

"Not that David Drummond is wrong about Google's competitors using the patent system to fight Android," CNNMoney adds. "They are." The fact is, however, that Google has engaged in the same game. Further, "it reinforces something that many observers think about Google's position here," TechCrunch adds. "That they simply weren't taking the patent situation too seriously until recently, and now they're all up in arms about it."

"From where we're sitting, it merely appears that three large public companies are each gathering patents and wielding lawsuits in an effort to boost their respective bottom lines," The Register reasons. "That Drummond seems so shocked by this is rather amusing."

Still, in Drummond's defense, his email could be taken as "a good sign for Android partners that Google is committed to defending the platform," writes GigaOm.