Google and Cisco have signed a “long-term” patent cross-licensing agreement.
The companies said the agreement will increase the value taken from their respective portfolios and, more importantly, diffuse some of the risk for future litigation.
Google’s new agreement with Cisco comes shortly after the company entered similar agreements with Samsung and Ericsson related to GSM, UMTS, and LTE standards for both networks and handsets.
“In today’s overly-litigious environment, cross-licensing is an effective way for technology companies to work together and help prevent unnecessary patent lawsuits,” Dan Lang, Cisco’s vice president of intellectual property, said in a press release.
Both Google and Cisco are members of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, an advocacy group for patent reform.
Last year Rockstar Consortium, a group including Apple, Microsoft and Ericsson that bought out Nortel’s patents in 2011, sued for patent infringement a group of companies including Google, Samsung, HTC and Huawei. Last month, Rockstar dropped its suit against Huawei.
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