Mountain View January 2014: For 3.2 billion U.S. dollars, Google took over Nest Labs, a manufacturer of digital thermostats and smoke detectors. The special thing about these devices is that they both conform to the preferences of their users as well as being controllable from Smartphones. Temperatures are automatically lowered when no one is home through integration of motion sensors. This success story is characterized mainly by a targeted patent strategy. After founding the company in 2010, Nest Labs began to secure the monopoly by a pro-active, early purchase of applications and patents. The two founders Matt Rogers and Tony Fadell were once significantly involved in the invention of the iPod and its development at Apple. Google does not only step into new business with the automation of households, but also secures data from millions of households. Even if the CEO Tony Fadell assured that the data will be used only to improve the produced products, Google’s acquisition sparked heated controversies around the topic of data protection.