Google's obscuring their patents. Is that evil?

A friend sent me an EE Times Asia article on Google hiding patent applications by not clearly listing their name on them.

Basically, if you're trying to see what Google's up to by searching for their name in the USPTO database, you may be out of luck.

But... does that matter?

The quid pro quo of a patent is that the filer gets a monopoly on an invention for a time, but must disclose the workings of this invention to the public as a condition. So, eventually it's a contribution to the commons.

Google hiding their ownership doesn't change this... the inventions still get disclosed. The public still gets the benefit, and Google gets a monopoly on the technology for a time. The only people that get hurt are people using patent databases as a way to figure out what their competitors are up to.

It's a fair (and common) use of the patent databases, but this strategy-disclosure doesn't seem to be a part of the patent quid pro quo (nor does it seem like it ought to be). So in this case, I'm siding with Google... obscuring patent ownership doesn't sound all that evil to me.