Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has signed a patent cross-license agreement with Amazon.com Inc. The agreement provides each company with access to the other’s patent portfolio and covers a broad range of products and technology, including coverage for Amazon’s popular e-reading device, Kindle(TM), which employs both open source and Amazon’s proprietary software components, and Amazon’s use of Linux-based servers.
Microsoft, which started an intellectual property licensing push in late 2003, has deals with scores of companies ranging from Novell to Samsung and Fuji Xerox.
“We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com,” Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said in a statement. “Microsoft’s patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved.”
SOURCE: Microsoft Corp.
