14 DAY TRIAL // The new intellectual-property agreement between Microsoft and Amazon.com features a focus on the open source technology leveraged in the products and infrastructure of the Internet commerce giant. Neither the first, nor the last patent agreement with Microsoft, the deal is illustrative of a growing trend involving companies that embrace IP from the software giant via agreements designed to cover Linux and open source.
“We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com,” Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft, noted. Per the patent cross-license agreement, Amazon.com and Microsoft will have access to the other’s patent portfolio.
Microsoft emphasized that the deal included both open source and Amazon’s proprietary software components in the Kindle e-reader and also Amazon’s Linux-based servers. Neither company wished to disclose the specific terms of the agreement. However, Microsoft did note that it was being compensated by Amazon.com, although the exact amount of money was not made public.
“Microsoft’s patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved,” Gutierrez added.
Approximately three years ago, licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez pointed out that the Linux operating system and other open source products infringed on no less than 235 Microsoft patents. The Redmond company never revealed which specific examples of intellectual property it considered open source software to be violating.
Amazon.com had nothing to add to Microsoft’s announcement, and offered no comments or details of its own on the matter at hand. “Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 600 licensing agreements, including patent agreements with other leading companies that use Linux for their embedded devices such as LGE, Samsung Electronics, Fuji Xerox, Buffalo Melco and Brother,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Softpedia.