HTC and Microsoft’s agreement on patents

HTC and Microsoft signed a patent agreement that allows the Taiwanese to use Microsoft technologies on their terminals, paying licensing.

Even though HTC makes Windows Mobile based smartphones, and soon, Windows 7 Phone, the news is in fact the devices based on Android, the Google OS. At present only few details are known, but a manager at Microsoft, Horacio Gutierrez, said the Redmond company prefers to resolve intellectual property issues without going to courts and processes, while ensuring that “their technologies are not used by competitors for their own interests. ”

Microsoft has announced it is in talks with other Taiwanese manufacturers, besides HTC. The amount of license fees that the company will pay to Microsoft smartphone was not disclosed, but will include all Android devices, including Nexus One distributed under the Google brand. This agreement may paradoxically be a breath of oxygen for HTC, Apple recently attacked by a dozen patents for its iPhone used cell phones.

Microsoft, by contrast, has a cross licensing agreement with Apple. This agreement would cover so HTC smartphone with Windows Mobile and Android, although some changes at the interface and software could expose the company to Taiwanese new charges by Apple.