Google and Microsoft make patent peace

&quot;What we do know is that Microsoft makes approximately $3.4-billion a year from its Android patent licening deals. &quot; [sic]<p>I guess this might be good news for Google?<p>From my perspective, patents are a toxic drain on morale&#x2F;intelligence&#x2F;innovation that we have no hope of curtailing in my lifetime.

So will MS stop demanding money from various Android manufacturers now? In general I hope they&#x27;ll change their attitude from patent aggression to patent disarmament. We need more changes like this.

So does this mean the next nexus will get an micro-sd card slot? Cause this is has kept me away from one due to this meaningless feud.

Definitely a move in the right direction. Software companies have operated with a war mentality for too long, despite their common interests. They trade employees pretty often too, exposed no-poaching agreements aside. Competition isn&#x27;t going away any time soon, but I think everyone appreciates more interoperability and cooperation. Will the Internet communities following them be able to follow this example?

&quot;Google and Microsoft agreed to work together against patent trolls in the European Union.&quot; I hope the irony of this isn&#x27;t lost on anyone - especially as it relates to Microsoft.

I wonder if Apple enabling ad blocking in iPhones and iPads had something to do with this. Many see it as a direct shot at rival Google, which makes most of it&#x27;s money from advertising. Days later and suddenly Microsoft and Google are besties. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

Google is slowly becoming the next Microsoft.

They make patent peace with themselves but not with the small guys?

Do you think this handshake was partly due to the CEOs of both Microsoft (Satya Nadella) and Google (Sundar Pichai) having the same roots (India)?

&gt; Earlier this week, Microsoft re-signed an Android patent-protection pact with I-O Data for an undisclosed amount.<p>You don&#x27;t say? A patent <i>protection</i> pact. So they don&#x27;t even try to hide the fact that it was a mafia-style protection racket all along now?<p>&quot;Such a nice business you got there. You wouldn&#x27;t want it to be dragged in Court and lose millions or hundreds of millions of dollars? Why not just pay us this tiny $5 fee per phone, forever, instead, for an OS we never participated in creating?&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Protection_racket" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Protection_racket</a>

TFA (perhaps unsurprisingly) does not mention this particular Microsoft-Google case:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;tech-policy&#x2F;2015&#x2F;07&#x2F;appeals-court-upholds-microsofts-legal-win-over-motorola&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;tech-policy&#x2F;2015&#x2F;07&#x2F;appeals-court-uph...</a><p>Of all the patent lawsuits that happened in all the smartphone wars that nobody won, this was the <i>only</i> case where a company was actually sanctioned for, essentially, abusing patents. And this happened on Google&#x27;s watch. For all the rhetoric Google spewed about how their competitors were abusing patents, ironic that they were the one company that was actually found to be a bad actor. I always thought Google for too much of a free pass on that one.<p>Interestingly the Ars article I linked does not mention Google at all. Guess it&#x27;s not so surprising they got a free pass.