All those billions investing in Motorola in the hope of being a patent troll have not paid off for the search engine Google. Google had sent the boys around, with lawyers in tow, to score billions in patent payments over the technologies used in the Xbox console.

Google thought that damages of about four billion dollars a year would be a nice round figure. Vole said that it would pay about one million dollars, which seemed fair. However US judge James Robart sided with Microsoft and said it should pay Google 1.8 million dollars every year. Motorola and parent company Google are yet to comment on Judge Robart's verdict.

But this is all bad news for Google which spend billions acquiring Motorola in the hope that its huge collection of patents could see off trolls from Apple and Microsoft. Its Android partners have been paying so much to those trolls that Microsoft almost does not have to worry about being a success in the mobile market as it makes stonking Android profits.