It also would send a strong message to everyone they ever partner with in the future.
Partner with and then have steal intellectual property from, you mean? That's a precedent Google would like to have set. It's like a public hanging of bandits.
Bingo, I could have phrased that better, this is exactly what I meant. I was thinking of the message as "partner with us and try to screw us and you're in for a world of hurt, partner with us and treat us well and we'll make sure you're taken care of"
True, but if anyone has a lot of dollars it's Alphabet.