Every company that has paid Microsoft off for its so-called Android/Chrome patent licensing has been a Microsoft business partner.
The only two companies that have fought Microsoft's "advances" are Motorola Mobility and Barnes & Noble. Neither compnay is a Microsoft business partner.
What gives?
Microsoft has signed up Pegatron Corp. to license undisclosed Microsoft patents so as not to run afoul of Redmond with its Android and Chrome based e-readers, tablets and smartphones.
Pegatron is paying Microsoft an undisclosed amount as part of the deal. No further information about the terms of the agreement are being shared, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft is now touting the fact it has licensed four of the top five Taiwanese original design manufacturers (ODMs) as part of its patent-licensing strategy. “More than 70 percent of all U.S. Android devices are covered under the company’s portfolio,” according to Microsoft officials speaking about the April 25 news.
Microsoft now has more than a dozen patent-licensing deals with vendors providing Android and Chrome OS-based devices , almost all (if not all) of which involve those vendors agreeing to pay Microsoft licensing fees for undisclosed Microsoft patents upon which Microsoft officials have said that Android and Chrome OS potentially infringe. Other Android/Chrome OS licensees of Microsoft’s patents include OEMs and ODMs Compal, HTC, Samsung, Quanta, Wistron and LG.
Barnes & Noble and Motorola Mobility are both continuing to fight against licensing Microsoft patents to cover Android-based devices that they sell.
Pegatron isn’t only an Android/Chrome device vendor. It also has designed Windows 7-based slates.
