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Microsoft and Google Finally Drop 5-Year Long Patent Lawsuit


Karamjit

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The two companies will work together on patent matters

Microsoft and Google have agreed to end a 5-year long patent dispute and more than 20 ongoing lawsuits in the United States and Germany, deciding to work together on what they call “patent matters” in the future.

The legal dispute between Microsoft and Google was actually started by the Redmond-based software giant in 2010 when if first asked for royalties for a number of Android patents from a number of companies selling devices running this OS version, including Motorola.

At that time, the majority of companies agreed to sign patent agreements with Microsoft, but Motorola and Samsung (an agreement with the latter was reached earlier this year) moved the dispute to court. Microsoft, however, claimed that Motorola demanded in return a 2.25 percent cut on Xbox sales because the console was using certain technologies it owned, including Wi-Fi and video compression.

Google joined the battle

Although the legal fight was started by Microsoft against Motorola, Google joined the battle in 2013 when it purchased the latter, which was the final step towards a long-time dispute between two of the world's largest tech companies.

In the meantime, both Microsoft and Google wanted to settle the lawsuit and according to today's announcement, the two companies will drop all accusations and end the dispute in exchange for a long-time collaboration on what they call patent matters.

Below is a statement released as part of today's announcement:

“Microsoft and Google are pleased to announce an agreement on patent issues. As part of the agreement, the companies will dismiss all pending patent infringement litigation between them, including cases related to Motorola Mobility. Separately, 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.”

No other information has been provided, such as any financial terms that might be involved, but more on this is very likely to emerge soon as the collaboration between the two is about to get started.

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i guess they finally figured out fighting was going to cost them more $$$ in the long run than working together...up next they will both be in court for working together to fix prices :D

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