Verizon announced it has entered into a “long-term patent cross-license agreement” with Google. The patents cover a range of products and technologies and the agreement will help both companies avoid future litigation.
“Verizon has long championed patent reforms and industry actions that promote innovation,” Verizon General Counsel Randal Milch said in a statement. “We look forward to striking similar deals with other high-tech companies also concerned with the innovation tax that patent trolls often collect.”
Milch expanded on those thoughts in a blog post, saying that costly and time-consuming litigation sought by a “Johnny-come-lately owner of a single patent can threaten an entire innovative ecosystem. That’s bad for innovation and bad for American consumers.”
Milch said Verizon will seek to form more patent agreements with companies like Google but insisted that all tech companies need to support Congress’s efforts to pass patent litigation reform in 2015.
This year Google struck up patent agreements with Samsung and LG similar to its new deal with Verizon.
Filed Under: Carriers, Devices
