News
Microsoft, Dell Ink Patent Deal for Android and Chrome
- By Kurt Mackie
- March 27, 2014
Microsoft and Dell on Wednesday announced a patent licensing agreement in which Dell will pay Microsoft royalties for using Android and the Google Chrome OS.
In return, Microsoft has agreed to license Dell's patents for technology used in Microsoft's Xbox game consoles.
The exact terms of the deal were not spelled out in Microsoft's announcement, though it appears to be yet another example of Microsoft's legal targeting of the Linux-based Android operating system. Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft's Innovation and Intellectual Property Group, described the agreement as a way to "share intellectual property."
"We have been partnering with technology manufacturers and vendors for many years to craft licensing deals, instead of litigation strategies," Gutierrez said in a released statement.
It was Gutierrez who early on claimed that Linux infringed on 235 of Microsoft's patent holdings, a claim that caused much outrage among the open source Linux community. In subsequent years, Microsoft has claimed to have reached intellectual property deals with around 70 percent of hardware vendors that used Linux OSes.
Android was shepherded by Google, which offers the OS royalty-free to hardware vendors. However, those vendors don't get legal indemnity assurances from Google if they use it.
Microsoft apparently makes revenues from licensing technologies alleged to be used by Linux. Still, the growth of Android and iOS on mobile devices has pressed hard on its Windows monopoly, possibly causing it to lower Windows 8.1 costs for some hardware manufacturers.
Dell specifically uses Android in its Venue line of tablets.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.