Tag: Patents

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Samsung signs agreement with Microsoft while fiercely fighting Apple in court.

Microsoft announces it has signed agreement with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.:

Microsoft announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., to cross-license the patent portfolios of both companies, providing broad coverage for each company’s products. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will receive royalties for Samsung’s mobile phones and tablets running the Android mobile platform. In addition, the companies agreed to cooperate in the development and marketing of Windows Phone.

It is interesting that Samsung signs a cross-licensing deal with Microsoft while fiercely fighting Apple in court over patents and other things.

Well, Samsung already licensed Windows OS for its portable computer in addition to producing Windows Phone 7-based devices.

In related news, Google says that Microsoft-Samsung license deal is “extortion”.

I wonder what Google said about the deals Microsoft made with HTC over Android licensing?

Related read:

Samsung takes Android patent license from Microsoft rather than wait for Motorola

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What if Apple asked Samsung to pay royalties for every Android devices sold? Would Samsung take that deal? That’s exactly what Samsung is doing with regard to the deal with Microsoft.

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Patent Cold War is turning for the worse as Google acquired Motorola.

I might have been watching too much of Star Trek: Enterprise on Netflix. The “Temporal Cold War” arc might have been a ridiculous plot but it was actually enjoyable to watch.

Google just announced its upcoming acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

Who would’ve thunk that Google would have to categorize Apple and Microsoft as common enemies? Motorolans and Googlers are combining forces against the Apples, Microsofties and Oracles. Don’t forget Samsungers and the HTCees. Android is under attack and Googlers are not going to take it anymore.

Patent Cold War is going strong.

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Battle of the Fans: Patent Wars

The short story:

There’s Google with Android OS and there’s everybody else with everything else. Google’s Legal Counsel said that companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Apple are trying strangle Android over bogus patents. Microsoft’s Legal Counsel said that they asked Google to jointly bid for Novell patents, and Google said no. Google responded that it’s a trap.

The most interesting part of this Tech Soap Opera are the fans (for lack of better terms). For example, a post by John Gruber (a perceived Apple fanboy and an accused Google hater) was submitted to Hacker News. The post draws anti-Gruber comments regardless of the content. It shouldn’t be about Gruber; it should have been about Google, its competitors and patents.

There is an immediate need of Patent Law Reform.

In the meantime, fans of each faction are reposting the articles and tweets.

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Dear Lodsys, Payback is a Bitch.

FOSS Patents blog reports that ESET, the maker of NOD-32 Antivirus filed a declaratory judgment action against Lodsys with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Lodsys recently gained notoriety for filing lawsuits against seven iOS Developers for in-app-purchases and in-app-upgrades related patents. Apple then filed motion to intervene on Lodsys Patent Lawsuit. A Michigan company named ForeSee Results Inc. is seeking to invalidate Lodsys patent portfolio.