Samsung said Monday it had signed a long-term cross-licence deal with Google in a move to help the South Korean technology firm stave off potential patent disputes in the future. The move comes as the South Korean firm is engaged in a series of long-running copyright infringement rows with Apple over technology and design in the firms' smartphones and tablets. Samsung said in a statement Monday that its agreement with US Internet search giant Google will cover the firms' existing patents as well as those filed over the next 10 years. "By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation," Allen Lo, Google's deputy general counsel for patents, said in the statement.



More...