Google takes a break from suing other companies over phone designs using patents it acquired from Motorola to lay off 4,000 employees, or 20 percent of the company's work force. Google says that this reduction is part of a larger restructuring plan that will ultimately see the closure of one-third of Motorola’s 90 offices.

While Political Machine 2012 is probably the de facto election year strategy game of choice for PC and Mac players right now, those looking to run a campaign on iOS and Android devices can always check out Election Game 2012: Race for the White House. While we can't attest to the quality of this game (we haven't played it personally) developer Lunagames promises a down and dirty political campaign to win the highest office in the land: the presidency.

The party is over for game developers that use "deceptive names or icons" that cause confusion or blatantly trick consumers into believing that a product represents a particular brand on the Google Play Store. Google has updated its developer program policy agreement for its Google Play Android store with a warning to developers trying to trick customers: "Apps must not have names or icons that appear confusingly similar to existing products."

According to this BBC report Facebook, eBay, Google and Amazon have joined a new lobbying group that will push issues they deem important in Washington. The new lobbying group is called The Internet Association, and will open up shop in Washington D.C. in September. They will handle political and regulatory issues in the capital.

In an interview with Reuters, the US Court of Appeals (Chicago) judge who recently tossed the patent litigation case between Apple and Motorola described patent litigants as "animals" and said that many companies should not have patent protections.

Not to be outdone by Microsoft's new Surface tablet, Google announced a new tablet of its own that it hopes can compete with Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire line. Google's new tablet, the Nexus 7 will be an Android-based games ready device using Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor. The tablet will be manufactured by Asus, runs on Android 4.1 ("Jelly Bean"), offers a 1280 x 800 display, a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU, a 12 core GPU, and will support the Google Play marketplace.

Motorola has proposed royalty fees to Microsoft in an attempt to put an end to its long running and global patent disputes, but the Xbox 360 and Windows OS maker has rejected its offer claiming that the royalty payments are too high. Motorola's offer would squeeze a 2.25 percent royalty on every Xbox 360 sold and a 50 cent royalty fee on every copy of Windows sold. The royalty fees relate to patented Motorola technology that both products use.

Several Congressmen have signed onto a letter urging the International Trade Commission to express their strong concerns over a potential ban of the Xbox 360 related to a complaint filed by Motorola (now owned by Google). The list includes Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, co-sponsor of last year's patent reform bill (the America Invents Act), and the sponsor of SOPA; Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Cal.), the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Rep.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Posner has rejected the claims of both Apple and Google-owned Motorola Mobility in a long-running patent fight between the two companies. Judge Posner rejected both companies’ damages claims. The trial was to begin on Monday.

"I have tentatively decided that the case should be dismissed with prejudice because neither party can establish a right to relief," Judge Posner wrote in his order yesterday.

Florian Mueller, patent law expert and proprietor of the wonderful web site Foss Patents, passed along a note letting us know that the Federal Trade Commission recently sent a letter to the International Trade Commission asking the organization not to ban the sale of the iPhone, iPad or Xbox 360 related to complaints filed by Google.

Google suffered what some are calling a "major legal defeat" in a German court today in a patent fight with Microsoft. The court ruled in favor of Microsoft, who argued that Motorola has violated a patent related to text messaging. The ruling would allow Microsoft to pursue a ban on Android products in Germany. Motorola won a similar decision earlier in the month in a German court that would allow them to pursue a ban of Xbox 360 and Windows products, but a Washington Federal Court has forbid the company for doing so until it makes a ruling in a U.S.

Legendary computer scientist and the man known as "the father of the Internet," Vint Cerf said during the Freedom to Connect conference in Washington on Monday that the International Telecommunications Union will become a "global Internet cop" by using a number of new tools being crafted by lawmakers. Cerf said that the ITU could push mandatory intellectual property laws as a way to strengthen web surveillance.

The Republican National Convention which is scheduled to take place in Tampa, Florida, hopes to be the most "tech-savvy" in the party's history. The RNC has teamed up with Microsoft and Google to provide the technology they want to offer attendees at this year's event. Republican National Convention organizers plan to live-stream all of this year's speeches, offer Google+ "hangouts," and to find unique ways to use Microsoft's Kinect technology during the event.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin shared his "growing concern" with UK newspaper The Guardian over what he calls "very powerful forces" trying to restrict freedom on the internet. In an interview with the newspaper, Brin said that the efforts by governments and companies such as Facebook and Apple to control online activity are "scary."

According to Google's Mobile blog, 850,000 android devices are activated on a daily basis worldwide, and over 300 million have been activated to date. Google's SVP of mobile and digital content Andy Rubin revealed the numbers. Rubin also noted that more than 450,000 apps are now available on the Android Market, or three times the number of apps that were available last year. He also said that over 1 billion apps are downloaded every month. From the blog:

Former Republican congresswoman and lobbyist Susan Molinari has been named the head of Google’s Washington office, according to an exclusive report by Politico. The new job will put the former member of Congress of the front lines of privacy policy fights and laws legislation like SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA. The search engine giant is facing closer government scrutiny over its privacy policies and business practices.

Google's ears must be ringing because the House of Commons seems to be saying its name a lot this week. Ministers in the UK are arguing over Google's supposed influence in UK copyright policy.

Pete Wishart, a Scottish MP from Perth, took to the floor earlier in the week to give online rights groups and companies like Google a piece of his mind. Ars Technica has a great news story chronicling the exchange among lawmakers. First up is MP Wishart:

The RIAA has given Google bad marks for its fight against piracy in 2011, according to this Ars Technica report. One year ago Google made several promises to combat piracy on various web sites and the RIAA's report card says that those promises have not been met with swift action or progress.

According to the BBC, British telecommunications powerhouse BT has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that its Android mobile operating system and other services it provides infringe on six patents it holds. The lawsuit alleges that Google’s Android, Google Music, Google Maps, Google Search, Google Places, Google Offers, Google+, and Google's location-based advertising infringe on various patents it holds.

While it might have been a clever use of Google's Street View (part of Google maps), Google isn't patting the developer of a first-person shooter game that used the 3D panoramic imagery from the service captured by Google. Instead they have put a bullet right between the eyes of "Google Shoot View." The game was created by Dutch digital ad agency Pool Worldwide said that it created the game to promote its unique marketing services.

The ESRB and the CTIA detailed a new ratings systems for mobile games this week - backed by such companies as AT&T, Microsoft, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless. Two companies that were curiously absent from that list hold the lion's share of the market when it comes to platforms: Apple and Google.

This morning Pablo Chavez, Google's Director of Public Policy, posted on the Google Public Policy Blog about Google's copyright policy counsel Katherine Oyama testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on the Stop Online Piracy Act today. You can read her written and her oral testimony below. In a nutshell Google supports the concept of a SOPA-like law but does not feel comfortable with the way the current Senate bill is worded.

Lots of interesting tidbits are being revealed about Apple founder Steve Jobs this week - all related to interviews he conducted prior to his death for an upcoming authorized biography. A couple of the juiciest quotes relate to his animosity concerning Google's Android mobile operating system. In one interview he made a vow to spend all of Apple's $40 billion to destroy Google’s rival smartphone operating system.

Jobs told biography author Walter Isaacson that he considered Android "grand theft" of his idea for a mobile operating system.

This morning in a blog post Google CEO Larry Page said that the search giant had reached an agreement to acquire cellphone maker and electronics company Motorola for "a total of about $12.5 billion" or $40 per share in cash. Page believes that the partnership between the two companies will "create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers everywhere."

Yesterday Google+ rolled out 16 games from various publishers to a handful of "invited" members, as the search giant continued its move to be like another social network we all know and love.

The games included Angry Birds, Bejeweled Blitz, Crime City, Bubble Island, Monster World, Diamond Dash and BioWare's Dragon Age Legends. While rival Facebook may offer thousands of games right now, Google+ hopes to differentiate itself by offering less game-related spam.

BioWare will be one of the first big development studios to create games for Google+, Goggle's fledgling social networking "project" that hopes to someday rival Facebook. Today BioWare announced that Dragon Age Legends, its dark fantasy Play4Free RPG is now available on the service. Developed by BioWare San Francisco, Dragon Age Legends blends tactical combat, progression and exploration in the Dragon Age universe.

There's more anecdotal evidence today that Google+ will at some point support games much like Facebook. SlashGear (with the help of a tip from a reader) uncovered a help page on Google+ that refers to a "Games stream." The help section list the following:

"If you're looking for updates shared from games, check out your Games stream," reads the help page in question.

This bit of information follows a gaming reference in Google+’s source code, including APIs like “/_/games/getGameFriends”, “/_/games/getActivities” and ” /_/games/postToStream”. Earlier this year Google was searching for a Product Manager to head up something called "Games at Google."

Sometimes when you get too bold the powers that be give you a slap across the face. The powers that be in this case are the folks at Facebook, who taught one developer who placed a series of Google+ ads on Facebook a serious lesson. App developer Michael Lee Johnson wanted more people to add him on Google+, so he decided to create an ad and put it on Facebook. The ad featured a headshot of the developer and text asking people to join his Google+ circles.

The ad reads: "If you’re lucky enough to have a Google+ account, add Michael Lee Johnson, Internet Geek, App Developer, Technological Virtuoso."

Google announced this week that over 130 million Android devices have now been activated since the mobile operating system launched and that more than 550,000 devices are activated every day. The announcement was made during Google's second quarter earnings call. The total activation figure is a 30 million increase over the numbers Google released in May.

The daily activation numbers are also up dramatically - from 500,000 just a few weeks ago to 550,000.

Meanwhile, analysts don't seem to be all that concerned with Google's activation numbers. According to this Apple Insider report, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster says he is "comfortable" with Apple's position in the industry.

A new consumer protection law in Taiwan that requires online software retailers to offer customers a week-long free trial of any application that can be purchased via download has riled Google enough to disable Android Marketplace sales in the region. According to the government of Taiwan, Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market both violated this new policy.

While Apple complied with the new rule, Google declined. For that reason the Taiwanese government has fined Google approximately $35,000. In response to that fine, Google has disabled app purchases for Android users who live in Taiwan.

The complex and highly disparate nature of laws governing commerce around the world pose serious challenges for global software vendors. The difficulty of navigating and complying with regional legal obligations is one of the reasons why Google's Android Market isn't fully supported yet in every country.