Microsoft and Google end patent dispute over Xbox and smartphones

Microsoft logo (Image credit: Windows Central)

Google and Microsoft have agreed to a settlement of sorts in a long-running patent dispute between the two tech giants. In all, the agreement will see around 20 lawsuits dropped in the U.S. and Germany. From Bloomberg:

"The companies pledged in a statement to work together in other ways related to intellectual property, including development of a royalty-free, video-compression technology to speed downloads, in an initiative that also involves Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. They will also lobby for specific rules on a unified patent system throughout Europe."

This puts to an end a patent fight that has been running since 2010, when Microsoft first accused Google's Android of using some of its patented technologies without paying royalties. Meanwhile, Motorola had been demanding royalties from Microsoft over patents used in the Xbox. This latest move seems to signal that we may be seeing a concerted effort for more cooperation, rather than litigation, between two of the world's largest tech firms.

Source: Bloomberg

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl.