Microsoft Inks New Customer Patent Covenant for Linux-Based Embedded Devices

Microsoft's roster of Linux vendors signing patent deals has grown this week with the addition of Brother Industries. The software giant announced that the two companies have entered a broad patent cross-licensing agreement, which will ultimately benefit customers, as the duo have indicated that they will share their respective patent portfolios. However, at the same time, the partnership also encompasses Intellectual Property, especially technologies integrated in Brother's printers and multifunctional devices, including Linux-based products.

“This agreement encompasses a broad range of patents contained in printers and multi-functional products (MFPs), as well as certain Linux-based technologies. Specifically, Brother’s Linux-based embedded devices will be covered through Microsoft’s direct customer patent covenants, a similar model to the agreement between Novell and Microsoft,” Michael Marinello, Director, Corporate Communications, Microsoft, told Softpedia.

Since inking the landmark interoperability and IP assurance alliance with Novell, Microsoft has continually courted Linux vendors, and signed similar customer patent covenants. Brother is simply the latest addition to this list of companies. “Over the past few years, Microsoft has entered into similar agreements with leading providers of printers and MFPs, including: Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Seiko Epson Corp, Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd., and Kyocera Mita Corp,” Marinello added.

Neither of the parties involved discussed the exact terms of the agreement, but the Redmond company indicated that it was compensated by Brother. The new broad patent cross-licensing agreement is designed to boost the two companies' research and development (R&D) efforts, as the software giant will access Brother’s patents for Microsoft’s products including the Windows client, while Brother will be able to do the same, when it comes down to MFPs, printers and Linux-based embedded devices.

“We believe that intellectual property licensing is an empowering way to bring innovation to the IT ecosystem,” said David Kaefer, general manager of Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft. “Our partners and customers continue to demand greater collaboration as they run increasingly diverse IT environments using technology and solutions that rely on both proprietary and open source code. This ‘mixed source’ world calls for sensible business arrangements between IT leaders to enable the use of software resulting from various development and business models.”