Microsoft-Amazon patent deal covers Kindle, Linux

Microsoft and Amazon.com have signed a wide-ranging patent cross-licensing agreement that provides each company with access to the other’s patent portfolio. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but it was made clear that Amazon will be paying Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money as part of the arrangement. While Microsoft wouldn’t say which of its products and technologies Amazon is interested in, Microsoft did mention that Amazon’s Kindle, which employs open source and proprietary software components, as well as Amazon’s use of Linux-based servers are covered.

Neither company would officially disclose why the deal was struck today. “We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com,” Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing, said in a statement. “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.”

Read more: arstechnica.com