If you talk to some tech people, they’ll tell you that patents are killing the industry. Others say that patents are protecting it from becoming completely chaotic.
Regardless of how you feel about patents, the latest news from Google and Samsung is undoubtedly good for Android fans.
Google and Samsung
recently announced that they have signed a “global patent cross-license agreement”.
In a blog post, Samsung said that this agreement covers “a broad range of technologies and business areas” and is a “mutually beneficial agreement” that covers all existing patents and any patents filed over the next decade.
What does this mean for you?
Let’s skip past all the business jargon. What does this mean for the average Android user?
It means that Samsung is now legally able to access Google’s patents. It means that Google engineers can work on phones without the constant threat of litigation hovering over their heads – at least Samsung-based litigation.
This agreement will pave the way for deeper collaboration in each company’s research and development sectors and should lead to some amazing new products released over the next decade. It means Samsung is free to develop Google Glass-style gear and Google can develop phones that look like Notes or GS4s.
Perhaps more importantly, this agreement also shows the tech industry that collaborating on patents might be better for everyone than jumping directly to the courtroom (I’m looking at you, Apple). If this is the first of many patent agreements in the tech industry, then that’s nothing but good news for consumers.
In fact, other deals have already followed. Soon after Samsung announced its deal with Google, the company also announced a deal with Ericsson that covers patents related to GSM, UMTS, and LTE communication standards. That agreement ends all patent disputes between the two companies.
Let’s hope Samsung’s deals with Google and Ericsson are the first of many eliminating the effectiveness of patents.
