Tech industry members can play nice together if they want to

Jan 27, 2014 09:51 GMT  ·  By

Tech companies have been complaining for years about patent trolls and all other companies that would rather sue others for patents they’re not even using. To prove to everyone that companies can work together, Google and Samsung have announced a new global patent-licensing agreement.

The two giant companies have just made the big announcement. “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,” he continued.

It seems like this is Google’s solution until a patent law reform is set in place, as the company has been saying that the one that’s already in place doesn’t leave enough space for innovation.

The agreement between the two companies covers current patents, as well as future ones filed over the next decade. This should make it easy for Google and Samsung to integrate each other’s patents into the products they launch.

“Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes,” said Samsung’s chief of the intellectual property center, Seungho Ahn. This is a subtle dig at Apple, who continues to war with Samsung over various patents

Google has been facing various legal issues on its own, as well, many against various patent trolls. Last week, Google won a case against such a firm.

Although it could have probably gotten damages too, Google chose to ask for a symbolic fee of $1 from Beneficial Innovations. The company had actually reached a deal with the patent troll in 2010, signing a contract that offered protection to any of Google's customers that used the Doubleclick ad technology.

When Beneficial Innovations decided to sue another group of companies, including some of Google’s clients, the Internet giant made the decision to strike back.