Huge news coming out of Mountain View this afternoon. Google has announced that it has reached a global patent cross-licensing agreement with Android heavyweight Samsung, covering a broad range of technologies and business areas.
Few details are known about the agreement at this time, but the companies have said that it’s a 10-year deal and that it covers all current and future technology patents. The move will bolster the patent positions for both Samsung and Google…
Here’s the full press release from Samsung:
“Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Google Inc. today furthered their long-term cooperative partnership with a global patent cross-license agreement covering a broad range of technologies and business areas. The mutually beneficial agreement covers the two companies’ existing patents as well as those filed over the next 10 years.
“We’re pleased to enter into a cross-license with our partner Samsung,” said Allen Lo, Deputy General Counsel for Patents at Google. “By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation.”
With this agreement, Samsung and Google gain access to each other’s industry-leading patent portfolios, paving the way for deeper collaboration on research and development of current and future products and technologies.
“This agreement with Google is highly significant for the technology industry,” said Dr. Seungho Ahn, the Head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Center. “Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes.”
And TechCrunch has a statement from Google:
“We’re pleased to enter into a cross-license with our partner Samsung,” said Allen Lo, Deputy General Counsel for Patents at Google, said in the statement. “By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation.”
The deal comes at an interesting time—just 2 months before Samsung is slated to go to trial with Apple in northern California. It’s round 2 of their 2012 battle in which Samsung lost nearly a billion dollars, and Apple already has a head start.
It’ll be interesting to see how, if at all, this new cross-licensing agreement affects Samsung’s battle with Apple and how it plays out in the future. For the record, Apple inked a similar cross-licensing deal with HTC back in November of 2012.