Microsoft’s patent licensing business has been known to be one of the more profitable ventures for the company. Indeed, the acquisition of Finnish giant Nokia was to a large degree for its large patent portfolio which would open more revenue streams for Redmond. Microsoft’s patent portfolio stretches across multiple verticals within the telecom industry due to which they have aggressively chased and entered patent licensing deals with major smartphone brands earning them anywhere between $5-$15 per handset sold.
This patent licensing agreement or the lack thereof is what caused Microsoft to sue the Japanese firm Kyocera back in March. Today, the two companies have announced that they are entering an expanded patent-licensing agreement that will enable both companies to use a broad range of technologies developed and worked on by them individually. Microsoft had earlier claimed that Kyocera infringed on patents pertaining to CPU thread scheduling, network management, communications and display sensor technologies because of which it had demanded a US sales injunction on three devices. The new licensing agreement resolves that issue and while the commercials of the deal nor the technical scope have been revealed, we imagine that we’ll start seeing the results of those agreements over the next few years.
[Via – ZDNet]