Posted on 10/01/2015 3:38:13 AM PDT by dayglored
Chumship pact pie carve-up details kept under wraps
Google and Microsoft have inked a secret deal in which all patent disputes between the mammoth companies will be abandoned.
The exact terms of the agreement – as in, who gets what – were not disclosed. Your guess is as good as ours.
"Microsoft and Google are pleased to announce an agreement on patent issues," the companies said in a joint statement that was sent to El Reg via email. "As part of the agreement, the companies will dismiss all pending patent infringement litigation between them, including cases related to Motorola Mobility."
The two online giants had been set to lock horns in around 20 patent lawsuits in the US and Germany, based on issues ranging from mobile phones to streaming video. Those cases have now been resolved in one fell swoop.
"Separately," the joint statement said – implying it was a completely unrelated issue – "Google and Microsoft have agreed to collaborate on certain patent matters and anticipate working together in other areas in the future to benefit our customers."
What areas those may be, and what "patent matters" they may entail, was not disclosed.
Microsoft has been the chief aggressor in this spat, having alleged beginning in 2010 that Google's Android mobile operating system infringed on several of its patents.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
Nonetheless, I think this looks like a Good Thing overall for everyone.
What do you think?
Hi ThunderSleeps — one for your ping list?
Yes, it's a good thing. Spend your money on engineering instead of lawyers.
But, if this is actually a SECRET agreement, why am I reading about it on FR?
the fact that there is an agreement is public. the details of the agreement are secret (private). that’s pretty much standard procedure.
Isn’t this called collusion?
I agree. Both companies will benefit from this, so will consumers.
I was recently involved in a patent war between two companies. My involvement was entirely technical; I was, in no way, associated with the legal aspects. I learned this: There is virtually no logic at all in the legal aspects. The legality of both sides is almost solely determined by historic decisions, technicalities of the law, and arcane legal definition of words totally unrelated to plain old English definitions. It is a battle between lawyers, and it is irrelevant which side is "right". It's unimaginable to me why any company would ever want to spend good money on such a fight. Kudos to Microsoft and Google.
The lawyers will never let them get away with this. They pretend to be fighting all the time but they all work together.
That should be fine for them until the democrats take the White House and Justice and start an anti-trust investigation.
Oh, wait, nevermind. The tech industry owns the democrat party.
Hi TS, your logo http://ragzon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Android-logo-4.jpg seems to be 404 not found...
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