Google and Microsoft settle five-year patent dispute

While the resolution between Microsoft and Google is somewhat unorthodox for the two competing companies traditional stance towards each other, it shouldn’t be that surprising. After being acquired by Google, the company’s focus has shifted to the Android Wear smartwatch and entry-level smartphones.

In 2010, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Motorola over a breach of Motorola’s pledge to fairly license its patents, particularly those that Microsoft uses on its Xbox.

The Motorola issue revolved around that company’s demands for royalties related to technology contained in the Microsoft X-Box gaming console.

Cooler heads seemed to have prevailed in the heated dispute between Microsoft and Motorola and subsequently, Google. However, Microsoft claimed Android infringed upon numerous patents and has collected royalties from numerous handset manufacturers. The feature had been designed by the company to make it easier for users to sync their desktop-based calendars with calendars on their handheld devices.

The dispute was running between the companies for over five years, which concerned patents regarding phone and Xbox technology.

After years of wrangling over Google’s Chrome and Android technologies, Microsoft and the search giant announced a wide-ranging legal settlement this afternoon. The companies, in their joint statement, promised to cooperate in various areas of intellectual property, including development of the royalty-free, video codec; and to lobby for a unified patent system throughout Europe.

Equity firms also remain in favor of this agreement. There’s still Bing aiming to capture a percentage of Google’s market share while Google is working on a SurfacePro rival for the business arena.

And let’s not forget Microsoft moving into the WebRTC world with the release of Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge, both incorporating the open standards real time communications technology along with the rewrite of Skype to use WebRTC.

The financial terms of the deal, which doesn’t rule out future lawsuits, haven’t been disclosed.

Patent litigation in the US this year is fast approaching the record levels seen in 2013 after experiencing a marked decline in 2014, according to RPX, an organization that provides defensive licensing, research and acquisition services.