Late
today, Apple and Google announced that they have agreed to dismiss
direct lawsuits aimed at one another, and will work together to help
push patent reform forward.
It’s a huge change for the two companies, which compete on everything
from music sales, to productivity tools, to cloud storage, to mobile
app distribution, and so forth. According to a source speaking to GigaOm, about 20 lawsuits will go dark.
Here’s the statement:
"Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies. Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform. The agreement does not include a cross license"
There is narrowness implicit to the agreement, given that the
companies can still pursue legal action that could harm their core
businesses. Apple could sue firms that work with Google, or with Google
products, and the like.
Given that surface area of their competition, the détente is notable.
Technology patent wars are incredibly common. Apple and Samsung’s
recent courtroom battle ended with a nine-figure payment awarded from
the latter to the former. The agreement doesn’t appear to ban future
litigation, so this is hardly a disarmament — instead, it is a
deescalation of current legal action that the firms appear more than
willing to leave behind.
If was a gambling man, I’d wager we don’t see much activity of this
sort moving forward. And the anti-trust hairs on the back of my neck are
prickling ever so slightly.
IMAGE BY FLICKR USER Martin Bowling UNDER CC BY 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN CROPPED)
Source:http://techcrunch.com
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