Microsoft Patents Provided To ZTE Following Agreement

Microsoft Patents Provided To ZTE Following Agreement

A number of Microsoft patents were provided by the software giant to companies that produce a good number of Android devices that are currently available in the US and international market.

The company revealed its patent-licensing pact with ZTE, a China-based manufacturer. The agreement was part of the drive of Microsoft to sign deals with a number of Chrome and Android device manufacturers. The agreement will give ZTE a license to the patent portfolio of Microsoft for any Chrome or Android smartphones, tablets, and similar devices that it manufactures.

It remains uncertain if ZTE will have to pay for the use of the Microsoft patents for its devices.

A similar agreement with Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn, was also announced by the software giant earlier. According to Horacio Gutierrez, the General Counsel and Vice President of Microsoft, a number of the legal actions in connection to patent conflicts would be avoided if the value of the creation of others is fairly recognized by other companies. Gutierrez also said that through experience, Microsoft has learned to respect the intellectual rights of other companies since they also expect other companies to respect their own intellectual rights.

Gutierrez added that Microsoft spent over $4 billion to acquire rights for the products it manufactures in the last ten years.

A number of Microsoft patents were supposedly violated by Chrome and Android although the company has not filed any lawsuits against the developer of the two operating systems, Google. Instead the company came to an agreement with a number of hardware manufacturers. Some of these companies include Compal Electronics, HTC, Wistron, Acer, and Quanta Computer.

Microsoft revealed that patent agreements cover around eighty percent of the Android smartphones in the US market and most of the devices sold around the world.

However, Google indicated that none of the Microsoft patents have been violated by either the Chrome or the Android OS.

Posted by James Fried on Thursday April 25 2013, 2:58 AM EST. Ref: CNET. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0