Google and Samsung sign long-term patent deal
Samsung and Google have signed a patent deal that allows both companies to license each other’s patents. The deal applies to all patents that both companies already own, as well as to the patents they will register in the next ten years.
The two tech companies have not disclosed any details about the patent deal, other than that it is global. It is not known whether either of the two companies has deposited money for the agreement. At the moment, both Google and Samsung, which equips most of its phones with Android, are involved in patent cases with various companies, but the two companies have left each other alone so far.
A senior Google lawyer says in a joint statement from Samsung and Google that patent deals like these “allow companies to focus on innovation and reduce the risk of lawsuits.” At the moment, Google and Samsung are already working together a lot, but what makes the deal interesting is that it is valid for a period of ten years. It is impossible to predict what the relationship between Google and Samsung will be in ten years.
According to Russian telecom insider Eldar Murtazin, the agreement between Google and Samsung is more than just a patent deal. Samsung would more often get the right to release a Google Play edition of a phone as part of the deal. In addition, Google would no longer be a competitor in the hardware field; according to Murtazin, the company will stop releasing Nexus phones in 2015, which will be sold under the Google banner. It is unclear what role in that story will be played by Motorola, the smartphone maker that was acquired by Google.
Furthermore, Murtazin claims that Samsung and Google want to prevent some companies, including Microsoft, from releasing Android smartphones. Earlier it appeared that Nokia, which is being acquired by Microsoft, was planning to do so. How Google and Samsung want to prevent this is also unclear; Android is released under an open source license. However, Google could deny certain companies access to the Play Store, the most popular Android application store. Finally, Samsung would stop developing its own smartphone operating system Tizen, but that would be a decision of its own.
Samsung has also signed a patent deal with Ericsson, the latter has announced. Unlike Google and Samsung, those two companies were involved in patent lawsuits. Samsung will pay Ericsson money for licenses on the patents, which relate to connections to mobile networks. This means that patent matters between the two companies are out of the question.