Google Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which are frequently involved in patent infringement lawsuits but not against each other, announced on Sunday that they have reached a global patent cross-licensing agreement.

The deal covers patents currently owned by the companies, as well as any filed in the next 10 years, the companies said in a release. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The companies said the deal "would lead to deeper collaboration on research and development of current and future projects."

"By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation," said Allen Lo, deputy general counsel for patents at Google, in a statement.

Samsungs Seungho Ahn, head of the companys intellectual property center, said the deal showed "the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes."

The companies have been at the center of the smartphone patent wars, though more as allies than foes. The majority of the litigation - which has sprawled across three continents, has been between Apple and the various companies involved in making smartphones based on Googles Android software, including Samsung and Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility.

Notably, Qualcomm last week said it had acquired patents once owned by smartphone maker Palm from Hewlett-Packard for an undisclosed amount.

Qualcomm says the purchase covers 1,400 U.S. patents and about 1,000 more foreign patients for the companys mobile computing technology.

Hewlett-Packard Co. paid $1 billion for Palm in 2010 as part of its first foray into tablet computers and smartphones, which ran on Palms operating system. The effort flopped and HP now sells tablets using Google Inc.s Android and a recently introduced version of Microsoft Corp.s Windows. Palo Alto, California-based HP hasnt re-entered the smartphone market.

( Written with agency inputs )

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The Nokia vs. HTC patent troll wars are running at a fevered pitch. In earlier news, HTC had received a severe blow when Nokia had won an injunction on a USB related patent in Germany – which could potentially see all HTC Android devices banned in the country. Nokia has been taking HTC to court over various patent infringement lawsuits all across the globe.

In the latest information received by FossPatents, HTC has received reprieve from the 7^th Civil Chamber of the Munich I Regional Court, where Judge Dr. Matthias Zigann has dismissed a patent infringement lawsuit (Nokia vs. HTC). In the lawsuit Nokia had claimed that HTC had infringed upon Nokia’s patent identified by the nomenclature EP0804046 which deals with a “method and apparatus for updating the software of a mobile terminal using the air interface”. The patent does not relate to all OTA updates, but specifically addresses a methodology of enabling mobile phone users to accept calls while simultaneously downloading a software update over the air.

The court had concluded that HTCs devices did not meet the requirement of a “first memory” and a “second memory” for enabling simultaneous OTA updates and incoming phone calls. As a result the court dismissed the suit. However there is not much cause for celebration in the HTC camp.

Since Nokia is selling its mobile devices unit to Microsoft, ensuring their patent portfolio remains intact is their most important task. Nokia can turn a decent profit on the basis of royalty it receives from its patent portfolio. As a result, we see these troll wars heating up, in which though HTC has successfully scored some big wins, Nokia has also received major wins – including an injunction in the UK and three separate wins in Germany itself.

Nokia has been pursuing a vendetta against HTC and has pulled the Taiwanese manufacturer across the globe in various patent infringement lawsuits, a process which started in April last year. Patent troll wars have turned out to be a major factor affecting innovation, however there seems to be no respite from these litigations in the near future.

What’s your take on these troll wars, let us know in the comments below.

The post Nokia Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against HTC Tossed Out In Germany appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

via AndroidHeadlines.com | http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/01/nokia-patent-infringement-lawsuit-htc-tossed-germany.html

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