Microsoft announced Wednesday Feb. 20 that it signed a patent agreement with Nikon Inc. for select Nikon cameras that run Android. Microsoft will collect royalties from Nikon, although the details of the agreement remain confidential.
Patent agreements between big technology corporations are the norm in the industry. As technology has advanced, consumers witnessed "patent wars" among big corporations about who owns the rights to specific software features. For example, when Microsoft transitioned beyond the PC market and into data-center computing, much of that technology was licensed from its predecessors. Corporations like I.B.M, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems (Oracle) were paid billions in licensing fees. When the smartphone became popular, the function of basic radio technology was also thrown into the mix. And then there was the addition of media technology patent-licensing to allow music and video to play on smartphones.
The new agreement between Microsoft and Nikon "provides a broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for certain Nikon cameras running the Android platform," said Microsoft's press release. Some Nikon cameras in its Coolpix line, such as the Nikon Coolpix s800c, run Android. In 2011, Microsoft entered into a patent deal with Taiwan-based company Compal Electronics that relates to devices that run on Android. Compal is an original design manufacturer (ODM) and produces smartphones and tablets for third-party vendors. Prior to the deal with Compal, Microsoft also made a deal with Quanta computers, another ODM company.
The agreements between Compal, Quanta and Microsoft "means more than half of the world's ODM industry for Android and Chrome devices is now under license to Microsoft's patent portfolio," said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft in a press release.
To protect intellectual property rights, companies make agreements to allow use of the patents in exchange for royalties. Microsoft, one of the leaders in technology, owns many patents related to computer technology, including 1,020 patents relating to cloud computing technology.
