Samsung to pay Microsoft a licence fee for Android

Samsung has agreed to pay Microsoft a license fee related to patents the software giant has that are used in Android.

Microsoft said it would “receive royalties for Samsung’s mobile phones and tablets running the Android mobile platform”, which is owned by Google.

Details remain sparse, but the announcement is important in the ongoing patent battles, especially given the recent acquisition of Motorola by Android owner Google.

“The agreement also gives both companies greater patent coverage relating to each other’s technologies, and opens the door to a deeper partnership in the development of new phones for the Windows Phone platform, wrote Brad Smith and Horacio Gutierrez, legal counsels for Microsoft in a joint blog post.

If Samsung truly believed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was going to be helpful to the Android ecosystem, it would have waited until that deal is closed

“Together with the license agreement signed last year with HTC, today’s agreement with Samsung means that the top two Android handset manufacturers in the US have now acquired licenses to Microsoft’s patent portfolio,” Microsoft said.

“That leaves Motorola Mobility, with which Microsoft is currently in litigation, as the only major Android smartphone manufacturer without a license.”

Microsoft claimed the deal was a further example that Android manufacturers could license patents to use in their handsets without impacting innovation.

Google has yet to respond to the announcement, but market watchers highlighted the scale of the deal on a smartphone industry that is currently riven by patent disputes between Apple, Microsoft and Android players.

Google bought Motorola at least in part for the patents the company held that might strengthen Android's courtroom position, but patent experts believe Samsung remains wary of the outcome of the Motorola tie-up.

“This is the most important Android-related intellectual property deal in its own right, and even more significant against the background of Google's proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility,” said Florian Mueller on the specialist website Foss Patents.

“If Samsung truly believed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was going to be helpful to the Android ecosystem at large, it would have waited until that deal was closed before concluding the license agreement with Microsoft. But Samsung probably knows it can't rely on Google.”