Acer & ViewSonic are the newest companies to patent licensing agreements with Microsoft to help their Android tablet and smartphones electronics from lawsuits if Microsoft decides to bring Google to court for patent infringement. The terms of the agreement aren’t disclosed, but ViewSonic will pay some royalties to Microsoft to cover Android tablets and smart mobile phones. The breifing of a license agreement with Acer does not however contains anything about royalties, perhaps indicating Acer might have executed a patent swap with Microsoft that does not involve cas.
Horacio Gutiérez, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, said he was pleased that both companies were taking advantage of their licensing program which was established to help companies against any Android’s IP issues.
Microsoft does not make Android, but it looks like they are making decent money off it: the first Microsoft Android-related patent deal was with HTC, and since then, they have recently executed patent licensing deals with others like Velocity Micro, Onkyo, and Itronics as well as Wistron—the last agreement also covers Google Chrome, not just Android. Microsoft has also been contacting other Android device manufacturers to apply pressure on them, with reports saying the company has asked Samsung to pay Microsoft $15 per Android device sold.
Now if Microsoft’s intellectual property campaign does succeed, the Redmond software giant will not only succeed in turning Android into some profit for themselves but will also tarnish Android’s position in the industry as a “free and open” O/S—In return, this might open a new market for Microsoft’s own Windows Phone platform, in particular with organizations and enterprises that don’t want to be left out all alone if somebody like Apple, Oracle, or Microsoft can rise up from under Android.
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