Solid Partnership
Samsung and Google have struck a comprehensive agreement to share each other’s patent licenses.
They announced on January 27 that the two companies have agreed to not only cross-license existing patents, but any and all patents to be released for the next ten years.
Samsung Electronics said that this agreement is designed to help both companies and prevent unnecessary competition stemming from legal battles. The deal is historic for the IT industry. Samsung’s Seungho Ahan said, “Samsung and Google will show the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes.”
Google also said that this cooperation is beneficial for both parties involved, since it will eliminate the potential threat of legal conflicts and help each other focus on developing their core competency and innovation.
Samsung is one of the biggest sellers of Google’s Android phones, among a wide number of manufacturers such as HTC, China’s Huawei, and ZTE.
This move is seen as striking in that the leaders of opposite sites of the ITC spectrum – Samsung from the hardware side and Google from the software side - have combined to form a partnership. This move has reaffirmed Samsung as Google’s biggest partner for the Android market, silencing doubts that Samsung’s foray into other operating systems such as the Tizen OS was driving a wedge between the company and Google, or that Google’s possible charging of fees to use Android would sour its relationship with Samsung.
The agreement is also bound to have implications on legal battles ongoing in the industry, most notably between Samsung and Apple. As the threat of legal battle is removed, both parties can focus on developing their core competencies. Moreover, partnership with Google puts Samsung in a more advantageous position in legal proceedings involving Apple, one that Google has been secretly supporting, but now has done so openly.
Both parties can now begin to share each other’s technologies, expediting the development of IT and benefitting the industry as a whole. This agreement will affect not only Android phones, but cloud and search applications, mobile ads, and further Google’s growth in the hardware sector.