After Google’s legal head David Drummond let forth with a blog post about how Microsoft and Apple had formed an evil patent cabal against the search giant, the software giant’s PR head Frank Shaw was not having any of it.

In his post, Drummond had claimed the pair ganged up on Google and had not offered to partner over key former Novell patents, in an attempt to stop the growth of its Android mobile operating system.

Except not, according to an email that Shaw posted on Twitter from Google’s legal counsel Kent Walker to Microsoft’s legal head Brad Smith.

Tweeted Shaw: “Free advice for David Drummond – next time check with Kent Walker before you blog. :)”

It was followed by the image of the email, in which Walker seemed to turn down an offer of a partnership over the patents. “After talking with people here, it sounds as though for various reasons a joint bid wouldn’t be advisable for us on this one.”

Smith also piled on on Twitter, noting: “Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.”

Wax on, Google!

Here’s the image of the email:

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

So how is the company feeling after losing the auction to a consortium including several rivals that have Android in their legal crosshairs?

Well, not too good, thanks for asking.

“This outcome is disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition,” Google Senior VP and General Counsel Kent Walker said in a statement provided to AllThingsD. “We will keep working to reduce the current flood of patent litigation that hurts both innovators and consumers.”

The patents sold for $4.5 billion to a group made up of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony. The collection of more than 6,000 patents covers a range of technologies, including lots in wireless and networking and some related to 4G wireless technology.

Google and its Android partners are, of course, finding themselves entwined in a host of legal battles. Apple is suing Taiwanese phone maker HTC, while Oracle is suing Google directly.

Microsoft has sued Motorola and Barnes & Noble over their use of the open source operating system, while seeking Android royalties from any company that will pay. HTC has already agreed to a deal with Microsoft, as have three smaller players, in moves announced this week.

Given all that, open source patent watcher Florian Mueller said he was surprised Google didn’t cough up whatever was necessary to get its hands on Nortel’s patents.

“No major industry player is as needy in terms of patents as Google,” Mueller said, noting that there are some 45 patent infringement lawsuits already surrounding Android. Still, he noted, “By purchasing Nortel’s portfolio, Google couldn’t have solved all of Android’s patent issues in one fell swoop.”

Mueller said the patents wouldn’t have helped much against Oracle, for example. “But Google lost an unprecedented opportunity to acquire a major bargaining chip that would strengthen it at the mobile industry’s intellectual property negotiating table.”

On Monday, Nortel announced that Google had bid $900 million to acquire the bankrupt company’s patent collection.

In a blog post, Google said the current litigious environment justifies the pricey bid.

“The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation,” said Google general counsel Kent Walker. “Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival’s new technology.”

Google has been on the receiving end of a number of patent lawsuits, both directly and indirectly. Oracle, with its Sun acquisition, has sued Google over Android, while Microsoft has sued and threatened to sue Android handset makers, saying that the mobile operating system infringes on Microsoft’s intellectual property. Microsoft has already sued Motorola and Barnes & Noble and reached a licensing deal with Taiwan’s HTC.

Microsoft is looking to make the case that Google’s Android isn’t really free to handset makers and has been arguing both privately and through its legal actions that it believes it deserves royalties for any use of Android.

And it is not just Microsoft seeking to use patents as part of its smartphone battle. Apple has also sued HTC, while Nokia has also been active on the patent assertion front.

Walker argues that what is really needed is significant patent reform but–given the current situation–the company is best off trying to assemble a patent army of its own.

“Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories,” Walker said. “So after a lot of thought, we’ve decided to bid for Nortel’s patent portfolio in the company’s bankruptcy auction. Today, Nortel selected our bid as the ‘stalking-horse bid,’ which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community–which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome–continue to innovate.”