@of course... and Er...
"Google's argument will have no weight until google as some weight in that same arena - i.e. it is a wolf - or as we may hope, a sheep in wolve's clothing - or with a wolfs jawbone as a weapon..."
"If they fall in to anyone's hand but 'ours' we might end up paying more than the patents cost."
The current system of Patents and Licensing in the US is akin to the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction in nuclear war! Big Company A amasses lots of Patents, so does Big Company B, each agrees not to sue each other and, instead, swaps Patent licenses.
The only problem being that it only works for those Big Companies, meanwhile everyone else is shut out or ends up being forced to pay and pay and pay in order to be able to compete in the marketplace with the "big boys".
Advocating Patent Reform whilst, at the same time, amassing big chunks of IP sounds more than a little hypocritical.