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Last month, Microsoft bought $1 billion worth of patents from AOL, most of which they’re now turning around and selling to Facebook. In a deal announced today worth $550 million, Mark Zuckerberg will take on about 650 patents and applications from the AOL deal ahead of his company’s public offering. “This is another significant step in our ongoing process of building an intellectual property portfolio to protect Facebook’s interests over the long term,” said Facebook’s general counsel, who hopes to avoid future litigation by paying up now. Facebook reportedly bid for the patents directly from AOL, but lost out to Microsoft, which has now recouped more than half of the deal’s costs.
