Kyocera, Microsoft settle patent suit over Android phones

Close on the heels of settling a dispute over Android patents, Microsoft and Kyocera, have entered into a patent cross-licensing arrangement about which no details were available.
Microsoft sued Japanese electronics maker Kyocera over allegations its Android phones violated seven Microsoft patents, in March.

Yesterday, the two companies settled the suit and simultaneously signed an expanded patent-licensing arrangement, according to a very brief press release from Microsoft.

The new patent agreement "enables the companies to use a broader range of each other's technologies in their respective products through a patent cross licence," the press release said.

No further details - including which technologies were being cross-licensed, details of payments etc, were disclosed by the two companies.

According to court documents, Microsoft had claimed it had patented thread scheduling, display sensor, network management and communications technologies, among others.

In March, Microsoft had asked the US District Court in Seattle for a US sales injunction against three Kyocera phones: The Duraforce, Hydro and Brigadier.

Kyocera was not the first Android vendor the software giant had sued over patent-related issues. It also sued Barnes and Noble, Foxconn and Inventec over the Nook reader. After settling with B&N, the company joined forces to create a spinoff. The Nook Media deal was terminated at the end of 2014.

According to commentators, it comes as another win for Microsoft's ongoing practice of seeking patent licences from Android manufacturers. Earlier this year, the company sued Kyocera because of components that formed part of Android that Microsoft claimed infringed on its patents. Licensing patents related to Android was a big business for the company, which, last year revealed that Samsung paid over $1 billion from July 2012 to June 2013 as part of a patent licensing deal.

Microsoft and Samsung settled their own litigation over licence payments for Android-related patents in February.

Microsoft had signed a number of other cross-licensing agreements this year, including one with Taiwanese manufacturer Qisda and another with Melco Group, the parent company of electronics maker Buffalo.