Microsoft’s licensing agreement with LG Electronics marks Microsoft’s eleventh deal with Google Chrome and Android device makers.
The deal “provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for LG’s tablets, mobile phones and other consumer devices running the Android or Chrome OS Platform”, said a Microsoft release.
According to Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of the IP group Horacio Gutierrez, that means that “more than 70% of all Android smartphones sold in the US are now receiving coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio”.
Gutierrez today tweeted about the agreement, saying: “How should the smartphone industry resolve IP disputes in the software stack? Let’s try licensing.”
He also retweeted a comment by Frank Shaw, lead corporate communications for Microsoft. “Can we just agree to drop the patents-as-weapons meme? When effective licensing enables companies to share IP, the metaphor falls apart,” wrote Shaw.
A meme is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means”.
Tim Stevens of Engadget called 70% “a startling figure” and characterised Microsoft as “going after manufacturers of Android devices with wild abandon and, more often than not, wrangling them into (surely expensive) agreements”.
Other Microsoft Android and Chrome licensees include Samsung, HTC and Acer.
Microsoft is suing Motorola at the ITC for infringing four claims in a Microsoft patent for remotely arranging meetings on Android-based devices.
“Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 1,100 licensing agreements,” said a Microsoft release.