Submitted by Google and Microsoft have agreed to end their long-running patent feud over smartphones and video game systems, dropping about 20 lawsuits in the U.S. and Germany.
The two companies, which didn’t disclose financial terms, have been litigating over technology innovations for five years. Google’s former Motorola Mobility unit had been demanding royalties on the Xbox video-gaming system, and Microsoft had sought to block Motorola mobile phones from using certain features.
If you’ve been paying attention, you know why this is taking place now.
Ultimately then, here comes .NET Android Studio (jointly from MS and Google). </speculation>
Edited 2015-09-30 23:54 UTC
Xamarin Studio?
Yes – but more so, somehow.
Xarmarin and Cordova are embedded in Visual studio 2015.
Ironically if enable all the Android dev, Visual Studio will also install Chrome and remove IE from your desktop.
Would be poetic for MS and Google to kiss and make up like this then turn their combined resources on Apple, who started the nuclear war in the mobile space to begin with. What goes around comes around, Apple.
Yeah, that would be cool. Especially if Google stopped releasing app updates first on iOS before Android, and stopped treating Windows users like second-class citizens.
You are right. Windows users aren’t second class citizens. They are 3rd and 4th class.
MS and Apple don’t fight over IP for well known reasons..
Is this because Apple needed to be rescued by Microsoft, when it was close to going bankrupt?
No. It’s because Apple needs Microsoft to look good in comparison, while Microsoft needs Apple to “prove” there’s competition in the marketplace and they’re therefore not an illegal monopoly.
Microsoft invested in Apple only because if Apple went under, it would have been considered proof of their illegal tactics driving competition out of the OS market. Remember that at that time, MS was still under heavy scrutiny by the govt after their conviction for illegal monopoly operations which almost got them broken up.
I predict Google apps to start appearing on Windows Phone in the coming months.
I predict Microsoft to get even more Android friendly in the coming months. Office for iOS? Check. Office for Android? Check.
They know what to milk and where.
Edited 2015-10-01 08:25 UTC
“If you’ve been paying attention, you know why this is taking place now”
Not sure what thom thinks the reason is, but I would entirely put this down to the fact that:
1. Levovo now own’s Motorola, and Lenovo is happily paying Microsoft IP fees
2. Satya Nadella is a very nice man
I don’t think that 2. is the reason. Remember, Microsoft sued Samsung for patent royalties after Nadella became CEO.
There is also another possible reason:
3. Microsoft cannot afford to make Lenovo upset, they are a too important OEM.
I have been paying attention, but I have no clue. Hopefully someone (Thom/Jonsmirl) can shed some light on this topic
Edited 2015-10-01 08:34 UTC
Microsoft is going to make Android phones soon.
a.k.a. the Cluehammer +5, expertly wielded by Thom!
1st of all … that needs a link for some proof. And not a link like this I hope: http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/phones/nokia-x/
2nd of all … so what if Microsoft makes an Android phone? The patent mess was about others not having the right to use the patents that Android uses. Microsoft could do that without violating their own patents and as far as I know there is nothing in the Android license that says “if you use Android you have to open/share any patents related to Android”
3rd of all … would that be a Google Android or an AOSP Android?
The GNU GPL version 2 (for the kernel) contains an implicit patent grant.
Apache License 2.0 (for most of the rest) contains even an explicit patent grant.
Very interesting. I read the patents bits in the GPL2 and Apache licenses and thought “If Microsoft will edit and distribute they cannot charge for patents anymore”…then I read this in the Android license: “While the project will strive to adhere to the preferred license, there may be exceptions that will be handled on a case-by-case basis.”
This article also seems to be about things that are not related to OEMs (other than Motorola) so I am very interested in this question:
If Microsoft distributes Android (which they already seem to do), would other OEMs be exempt from paying Microsoft Android related patent royalties?
It does? I thought implicated terms were worth squat, hence the need for GPL 3?
The only arguments I’ve heard about implied patent grants cite case law that appears to be about buying objects, not licensing copyrighted works.
IANAL, not legal advice etc.
* Microsoft forking Android, installing Bing, Outlook and Cortana and Office and installing whatever seems like a recipe for the “the Amazon Fire” rather than success.
* Microsoft delivering vanilla Android, and being competitive with the Sony’s, and Samsung, HTC’s would require a lot of time (1-2years -> what is soon?) and engineering and be very expensive to be hardware competitive in the high end.
* Financially https://theoverspill.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/android-oem-profitabil…. Satya Nadalla just wrote off his Nokia division because of these kind of microscopic margins.
If they are going to port Modern UI and Windows Runtime to Google’s platform, then I’m all for it. Otherwise, nuke ’em before they screw the WP world in the process!
No.. they sold Motorola to Lenovo but kept all the patents, so Lenovo has nothing to do about this.
Microsoft claimed that Motorola phones violated their patents. So on that side Lenovo (who now own Motorola) certainly have something to do with it.
Did anyone else notice this week that Microsoft debuted its big data solution for Azure and that it runs on Linux?
http://www.itworld.com/article/2987250/linux/microsoft-launches-its…
Maybe it’s because Ballmer is finally gone and Nadella seems less hostile towards Google than his predecessor.
Appearances can be deceiving. I’d suggest looking him over with a high powered microscope. You’ll learn the truth about this character then.