Microsoft and Kyocera are back to doing business together, reaching an agreement that resolves the legal dispute between them and ditches the patent-infringement lawsuit.
A few months ago, back in March, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Kyocera, claiming that three Android smartphones from the Japanese company violated seven Microsoft patents. The smartphones in question were the Duraforce (pictured), Brigadier and Hydro. The patents, meanwhile, cover a wide range of mobile technologies that Microsoft alleged the Android devices violated.
Microsoft has dozens of licensing agreements in place with Android OEMs, including Samsung, but it will not back out of a litigation if it doesn't reach an amicable agreement. Microsoft went after Kyocera in March, asking a Seattle court for a U.S. sales ban on the three phones that infringed its patents.
As it turns out, the two companies have now managed to settle their differences and Microsoft has officially dropped the lawsuit it filed against the Japanese electronics firm. Kyocera and Microsoft have signed a deal to expand a prior patent licensing agreement.
"The new agreement enables the companies to use a broader range of each other's technologies in their respective products through a patent cross license," Microsoft explained in its press release.
"In addition to strengthening the partnership between the two companies, it also resolves a patent-infringement lawsuit brought earlier this year in U.S. District Court. The remaining details of the agreement are confidential."
This new agreement marks another victory for Microsoft and its patent-licensing agreements with Android hardware makers. Licensing various patents related to Android brings in big bucks and business seems to be thriving in this department, as patent licensing is turning out to be quite lucrative for Microsoft. From July 2012 to June 2013, for instance, Samsung shelled out more than $1 billion as part of a patent-licensing deal. Microsoft and Samsung also got tangled up in litigation over license fees for patents related to Android, but similarly settled their dispute through an amicable agreement.
The new deal with Kyocera is now the last in a string of such deals Microsoft has reached with various Android makers. It remains unclear, however, just how much Kyocera will pay to use Microsoft's patents.
