 "Google, Samsung sign patent agreement")
Google and Samsung Electronics have signed a broad agreement to cross-license a range of each other’s patents, bolstering ties between the two main powers behind the global pre-eminence of the Android operating system for smartphones.
The deal, announced late Sunday, comes amid a proliferation of patent litigation among technology companies and so-called patent trolls, who buy up patents to enforce intellectual property rights — through the courts, if needed.
“By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation,” Allen Lo, deputy general counsel for patents at Google, said in a news release.
Google and Samsung said the agreement covered existing patents as well as some that would be filed during the next 10 years. Although a “broad range of technologies and business areas” are covered, the deal does not cover every patent that each company holds.
The companies did not disclose terms of the arrangement, including whether there would be a financial consideration for the use of each other’s patents.
While the deal deepens ties between Google and Samsung on certain technologies, they will not be able to use the patents that are covered to strengthen their case in existing litigation with other parties, according to a person briefed on the details, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement is confidential.
Samsung has been locked in a range of patent disputes with Apple, its arch-rival in the smartphone business. Apple and Google have been fighting a patent battle involving Motorola Mobility, which Google acquired in 2012.
Separately, a patent owner called the Rockstar Consortium, which was formed by Apple, Microsoft and other companies, has sued Google, Samsung and other companies involved in Android.
Last week, a jury in a federal court in Texas ruled against Google and for a concern named SimpleAir, which is seeking $125 million in damages stemming from what it contends are violations of a patent dealing with push notification technology for smartphones.
“Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes,” Seungho Ahn, head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Center, said in a news release.
Google, which developed Android software, and Samsung, the leading maker of phones that use the operating system, have had a highly productive though largely unofficial partnership until now. Android had an 81 percent share of the global market for smartphone operating systems in the third quarter of 2013, according to the research firm International Data Corporation, well ahead of its nearest rival, Apple’s iOS, with 13 per cent.
Yet there has been frequent speculation that either Samsung or Google might prefer to unravel the relationship and develop an integrated smartphone ecosystem blending hardware and software, along the lines of Apple. Google has begun selling Android phones under the Motorola brand name, while Samsung has been working on a mobile operating system called Tizen, along with several partners.
Tizen suffered a setback this month when one of its backers, the Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo, said it had dropped plans to introduce phones with the operating system this year. But Samsung has sent out invitations to journalists for a preview of Tizen devices at an industry conference in Barcelona, Spain, next month.
The patent deal stops short of a 10-year agreement by Samsung to use Android, but also suggests that speculation about possible disagreements between the two companies might have been exaggerated, analysts said.
The deal, announced late Sunday, comes amid a proliferation of patent litigation among technology companies and so-called patent trolls, who buy up patents to enforce intellectual property rights — through the courts, if needed.
“By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation,” Allen Lo, deputy general counsel for patents at Google, said in a news release.
Google and Samsung said the agreement covered existing patents as well as some that would be filed during the next 10 years. Although a “broad range of technologies and business areas” are covered, the deal does not cover every patent that each company holds.
The companies did not disclose terms of the arrangement, including whether there would be a financial consideration for the use of each other’s patents.
While the deal deepens ties between Google and Samsung on certain technologies, they will not be able to use the patents that are covered to strengthen their case in existing litigation with other parties, according to a person briefed on the details, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement is confidential.
Samsung has been locked in a range of patent disputes with Apple, its arch-rival in the smartphone business. Apple and Google have been fighting a patent battle involving Motorola Mobility, which Google acquired in 2012.
Separately, a patent owner called the Rockstar Consortium, which was formed by Apple, Microsoft and other companies, has sued Google, Samsung and other companies involved in Android.
Last week, a jury in a federal court in Texas ruled against Google and for a concern named SimpleAir, which is seeking $125 million in damages stemming from what it contends are violations of a patent dealing with push notification technology for smartphones.
“Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes,” Seungho Ahn, head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Center, said in a news release.
Google, which developed Android software, and Samsung, the leading maker of phones that use the operating system, have had a highly productive though largely unofficial partnership until now. Android had an 81 percent share of the global market for smartphone operating systems in the third quarter of 2013, according to the research firm International Data Corporation, well ahead of its nearest rival, Apple’s iOS, with 13 per cent.
Yet there has been frequent speculation that either Samsung or Google might prefer to unravel the relationship and develop an integrated smartphone ecosystem blending hardware and software, along the lines of Apple. Google has begun selling Android phones under the Motorola brand name, while Samsung has been working on a mobile operating system called Tizen, along with several partners.
Tizen suffered a setback this month when one of its backers, the Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo, said it had dropped plans to introduce phones with the operating system this year. But Samsung has sent out invitations to journalists for a preview of Tizen devices at an industry conference in Barcelona, Spain, next month.
The patent deal stops short of a 10-year agreement by Samsung to use Android, but also suggests that speculation about possible disagreements between the two companies might have been exaggerated, analysts said.
©2014 The New York Times News Service