LG Electronics Inc. (LG) and Google Inc. have entered into a long-term patent cross-licensing agreement covering a broad range of products and technologies. The agreement covers the two companies’ existing patents as well as those filed over the next 10 years. Google and LG didn’t specify whether the scope of the deal was limited to Android, which currently powers about four of every five smartphones sold globally. The agreement is likely to stave off any potential patent lawsuits between the two companies like the drawn out, costly legal battles that have ensued between Apple and Samsung or Google and Oracle.
LG is an important partner to Google. Since LG has been making Android smartphones, an operating system owned by Google, sharing patents could help both companies optimize their respective products. LG also makes Android Wear-equipped smartwatches, another category in which sharing and overlap could be of benefit.
LG manufacturers the company’s Nexus devices, and the rise of its own smartphones — shipments of which jumped 39% year-on-year to reach 16.8 million units in Q3 2014 — only cements its position as a key influencer in the Android ecosystem. LG’s flagship G3 phone has been cited by many as one of the best Android phones available on the market today.
LG has already partnered with other companies like Google and Nest to develop Internet-connected home appliances. LG also offers its line of Smart ThinQ appliances that can be monitored and controlled from afar using a mobile app.
Earlier this year, Samsung and Google signed a sweeping deal to license their patent portfolios to each other, covering both existing intellectual property in addition to patents filed over the next ten years. United under Android, the two companies haven’t been seen as litigation threats to one another — but with this deal, the threat drops considerably more.
Tech companies often use litigation to stop rivals from using patents without permission, but many of the disputes end in cross-licensing agreements outside court. Earlier this week Samsung Electronics has asked the United States court to negate its previous licensing agreement with Microsoft (MS), asserting that latter’s purchase of Nokia’s handset division has raised anti-trust issues.
