MICROSOFT & BROTHER SIGN PATENT-SHARING DEAL

[Anonymous]

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62050750,00.htm
Microsoft and Brother sign patent-sharing deal
February
2009 Microsoft and the printer manufacturer Brother have signed a
cross-licensing intellectual property agreement, the software leader
announced on Wednesday.
According to Microsoft’s statement, the deal
covers a broad range of patents and “will help further each company’s
research and development (R&D) efforts”. Microsoft said it has
similar arrangements with other printer manufacturers, including HP,
Samsung, Fuji Xerox, Seiko Epson and Kyocera.

“Our partners and
customers continue to demand greater collaboration as they run
increasingly diverse IT environments using technology and solutions
that rely on both proprietary and open source code,” Microsoft’s
general manager of intellectual property (IP) and licensing, David
Kaefer, said in the statement. “This ‘mixed source’ world calls for
sensible business arrangements between IT leaders to enable the use of
software resulting from various development and business models.”

Microsoft
and Brother have not disclosed many details of their agreement, other
than to say that Brother gets to use Microsoft’s patents for its
printers, and Microsoft gets to use Brother’s patents for Windows,
Office and other lines. The companies also said that the deal involves
Brother paying Microsoft an undisclosed amount.

[Author]

February 10, 2009 at 2:45 PM