While Apple and Google have not faced each other directly in court, Apple’s legal assault on Android handset makers amounts to an offensive against Google client states. Meanwhile, Motorola Mobility’s complaint against Apple filed this August amounts to a Bay of Pigs-style counteroffensive. Google’s name may not appear on the filing, but Motorola Mobility would not have opened fire without its corporate parent’s say-so.

When Google announced its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility a year ago, the deal was not so much about buying a hardware business as a patent portfolio that now makes up the bulk of Google’s arsenal. Among the 17,000 patents are several included in the Motorola complaint that Google may hope serve as deterrents to Apple, but that could be warheads that unleash further chaos:

Location notification: Motorola Mobility alleges it holds the patent on technology that pings smartphone users when they reach certain locations, a feature of the iPhone’s native Reminders app.

Multimedia controls: Google-owned Motorola’s suit contends the company holds the patent on features used in video players such as those found on the iPhone and iPad, as well as in Airplay.

Notifications: Motorola Mobility claims patent rights to a message manager program that ensures applications “only receive messages that are of interest.”

Siri: The suit says Apple has infringed on a patent of interactive services that provide a “prompt element including an announcement to be read to a user, and an input element that allows an audible user input to be converted into a text string.”

iMessage: Motorola Mobility asserts it holds a patent on syncing messages across multiple devices, a key feature of iMessage.