For an undisclosed price, Google and Samsung will remain long term partners after signing a ten year global patent cross-licensing agreement, lasting until 2024. This is a notably lengthy time to partner up, suggesting that both companies have innovative plans together in the long term.
“We’re pleased to enter into a cross-license with our partner Samsung” said Allen Lo, Deputy General Counsel for Patents at Google. “By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation”.
The deal extends beyond the smart phone category into the thousands of products produced by both parties. These include operating systems, household appliances, search platforms and advertising platforms.
“This agreement with Google is highly significant for the technology industry” explained Dr. Seungho Ahn, Head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Centre. “Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes”.
Although this may be seen as a positive step to avoid any possible future patent disputes, there are thousands of software patents already in existence from other industry giants, so the deal may complicate things as Samsung, Google, Apple and Microsoft continue to sue each other.
This deal could be a potential game-changer. Integrating Google software into the hardware of household products made by Samsung will secure their place in the technology industry and giving them an edge on the competition.
