Redmond has signed a patent deal with Dell for Android and Chrome OS products

Mar 27, 2014 14:03 GMT  ·  By
Microsoft is making millions every year without moving a finger out of patent royalties
   Microsoft is making millions every year without moving a finger out of patent royalties

Chrome OS might be one of the products that could contribute to the anti-Microsoft effort of several companies on the market, but the smart guys working for the Redmond-based software giant have found a way to get some money for every single device sold with this particular operating system.

Microsoft today signed a patent licensing agreement with Dell and involving several Android and Chrome OS technologies, which means that Redmond will get a certain amount of money for the devices made by Dell and powered by the two aforementioned platforms.

As you probably know, Dell isn’t the first company that agrees to pay royalties to Microsoft for Android-based products, but it’s pretty clear that the software giant will keep making money out of its patents without moving a finger for many years from now on.

If you’re asking Microsoft, today’s deal is the result of a 30-year business relationship with Dell and the agreement is only supposed to help the two companies “deliver world-class technologies to consumers.”

“Our agreement with Dell shows what can be accomplished when companies share intellectual property,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of the Innovation and Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft. “We have been partnering with technology manufacturers and vendors for many years to craft licensing deals, instead of litigation strategies.”

Dell officials, on the other hand, are very pleased with the deal and issued a statement that does nothing more than to emphasize the great collaboration between the two companies. Still no money involved, so no word on the terms of the deal (which we bet were the decisive factor for Microsoft during negotiations).

“Today’s announcement builds on our history of collaborating to bring new technologies to market. The relationship between Dell and Microsoft continues to help Dell deliver choice and flexibility to customers looking for the best technology to meet their needs,” said Neil Hand, vice president, End User Computing Products at Dell.

As mentioned, Microsoft has already signed patent agreement with many other large companies in the world that were planning to sell Android products using Redmond’s technologies. For example, in the past few years Microsoft announced deals with Android device makers such as LG, HTC, Acer, Samsung, and Barnes & Noble, and many other are very likely to flow in the coming years as the growth of this particular mobile operating system continues in every single part of the industry.