Microsoft and the 21st Patent Licensee

  Incidentally, the smartphone patent issue have continued between Microsoft and Voxx Electronics. Not all patent conflicts have ended as peacefully as successfully as the Microsoft-Voxx scenario. More specifically, it is interesting to look at how successful Microsoft has been to ensure companies to be licensees.

  Looking at the list, there are countless agreements that Microsoft has reached from Acer, Viewsonic and many other companies. It is the strength of Microsoft's patent portfolio that has helped the group negotiate these deals with companies. It would be rare to see smaller companies implementing this same strategy unless they are a NPE seeking profit from lawsuits. These collaborations are strongly beneficial for Microsoft to continue gaining more influence in the smartphone market given low shares from the last 2013 quarter. In this sense, Microsoft may be getting short term gains or safety but still would need to do more for long term gains. It would be interesting to see how the company deals factor in to Microsoft's long term plan or if they are looking at a long term goal to gain dominance in the smartphone market.

 Furthermore, Microsoft had many of these deals to license with companies after the Google-Motorola deal. In fact, one could consider these deals to be a response to the Google deal. Microsoft may have fears of Google gaining more traction in the smartphone market considering the fact that Google obtained many important patents. In this sense, Microsoft has implemented a seemingly mutual collaboration or truce to maintain some status quo in a chaotic market. With all these deals, it is unclear whether the companies in these deals are truly benefiting or will suffer. Maintaining some leverage, Microsoft may be capable of trying to make more gains at the expense of other companies or remain complacent. For any company in the industry, it is important to maintain some control to avoid being forced to develop new products (R&D is costly) or forced to settle through payment.

http://www.fosspatents.com/2014/02/microsoft-announces-its-21st-android.html