Lawsuits are generally regarded as tools of aggression. They can be used to legally entangle a company, or to wrest large sums of money from it; rarely are they meant to benefit the corporation being sued. Google may be confusing quite a few of its enemies, then, as the search engine giant seems to thrive on being targeted in case after case.

Katie Hafner wrote an article for The New York Times that led off with the title “We’re Google: So Sue Us.” She noted that “Google sometimes operates in a way that almost seems to invite legal scrutiny.” By and large, the company has been doing quite well under the magnifying glass, but why would it want to be there in the first place?

Because, according to Joe of Techdirt, “by racking up court victories against small opponents that make weak arguments and have unsophisticated legal teams, it’s helping to build up a body of case law that will come in handy when it has more serious legal challenges.” It looks like Google’s legal department has been reading its Nietzsche (as has Joe).

Google probably doesn’t view its actions as representative of Nietzsche’s Superman, though. Speaking in reference to the company’s mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible,” Jonathan Zittrain, an Oxford professor, was quoted for Hafner’s article. “They actually see that as Promethean,” he said. “They think of it as bringing fire to humankind.”

Jason Calacanis seems to appreciate the effort. “You gotta respect the fact that Google is going for it when it comes to defending itself in the legal space,” he wrote. “As we’ve seen, success in our industry is largely based on who is able to be balance innovation against antiquated law that never envisioned a networked world. Go to [sic] far one direction you’re Napster, say a little the other way and you’re YouTube.”

Of course, the Google acquisition of YouTube may bring more lawsuits to the company’s doorstep, but then again, that may be exactly what Google is hoping for.

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Doug is a staff writer for webproworld. Visit webproworld for the latest eBusiness news.