By Microsoft has just signed a licensing agreement with the tenth company regarding the Android patents. This company is Taiwan’s Compal Electronics and as a result of this agreement more than half of the Android devices have entered into patent license agreements with Microsoft.
In other words, this means that Microsoft collects money from 55% of all the Android devices to be sold. Microsoft has signed two similar contracts with Wistron and Quanta Computer before this.
According to the compnay, things are going great in what concerns the licensing contract with several companies that produce the devices under their own brand known as OEMs or original equipment manufacturers. These agreements account for no more no less than 53% of all Android smartphones in U.S.
In September, Microsoft announced an agreement with Samsung electronics. According to it, Microsoft was given royalties for all those Samsung devices running Android OS.
In what the agreement with Compal is regarded, Microsoft hasn’t given any details.
The purpose of the licensing program offered by Microsoft is to help Android device makers avoid being sued for allegedly infringing its patents. Still, things haven’t been that simple for Microsoft. Its first-license approach didn’t actually have the success the company hoped for.
There’s also an ongoing litigation between Microsoft and Motorola Mobility which Google intends to acquire for $12.5 billion. Microsoft has said in this matter that: “Our firm view remains, however, that licensing is the best way forward for the industry, and we will continue to prefer the licensing path to litigation”.
Microsoft’s attack against Google has been quite obvious when a spokesperson of the company said that it is time for Google to “wake up” because it’s not that difficult to verify all the smartphones and tablets patents. Even if the name Google hasn’t been mentioned in that statement, it’s obvious that Microsoft pointed to Google.
