#26 - Microsoft, the "Best Licensing Team," licenses to China's ZTE

Microsoft as of late has signed a license agreement to collect royalties from China's large handset maker, ZTE. ZTE also makes Android smartphones and tablets, so the patents it has licensed relate specifically to various aspects of Android smartphones. (Foss Patents has an interesting take on this case on the blog here.)

One of ZTE's smartphone models

Microsoft has one again shown its savvy nature in the realm of intellectual property management. It turns out that around 80% of Android phones sold in the US have licensed Microsoft's patents. This is an overwhelming number, given that Android phone adoption is expected to reach one billion by the end of the year (this is a projected and quoted number by Eric Schmidt from Google). That totals around 800,000,000 phones in the U.S with a Microsoft smartphone patent in it. Microsoft's patent portfolio highly lucrative as a result of this.

Ever since Google acquired Motorola Mobility, the relationship between Google and Microsoft has been an interesting one. They have achieved a relationship, no doubt, and the success of one drives the success of the other. Such a symbiotic relationship reminds me of the ecosystem between Apple and Samsung. Clearly the patents have bolstered Android phones, and apparently the device makers find the patents crucial to the success of the phones. Google, on the other hand, has apparently tired to dissuade Android device makers from signing license agreements with Microsoft. (This sounds quite anti-competitive to me, but Google manages to get away with a massive amount of things.) They are mutually benefiting each other and yet in the courts they are vicious to be the victors. The solution? Certainly the licensing system is a step closer to it, but there's no 'real' punishment. Even Microsoft, who has been crowned as the "best licensing team" by a widely-read IP magazine, can't guard all corners.