Amazon and Microsoft sign patent deal
Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 00:21 IST   |    1 Comments
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Amazon and Microsoft sign patent deal
Bangalore: Microsoft and Amazon have entered into a patent cross-licensing deal, as part of which, Amazon will pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money, reports CNET news. The deal covers both Amazon's Kindle product as well as the company's use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft has maintained that many implementations of Linux infringe on its patents and has signed numerous licensing deals that cover Linux with both companies that sell Linux based software and those that use the operating system in their hardware. According to CNET, 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," said Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez. "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."

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