Microsoft renewed a patent cross-license agreement with HP to enhance their R&D efforts and foster technological innovation as well as improve the overall customer experience. However, both the companies did not publicise the details of the terms of the agreement.They have also stated that the agreement will cover different commercial products thereby granting each company greater rights to the other’s patent portfolio. As reported in Softpedia, “One conclusion that can be drawn from the information provided by Microsoft is that the two companies have entered the agreement as equals as the software giant emphasised that the partnership “serves as a testament to the innovation taking place at the companies and the strength and breadth of their patent portfolios which are among the largest and highest-quality in the world.”In patent law, cross-licensing gives freedom to the companies to build stronger partnerships and innovate in a more open environment. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said: “Microsoft will invest this year over $9 billion in R&D to drive advances in search, intelligent applications, cloud computing, natural language and many other areas. Our goal really is to make computing more powerful, beneficial and of course accessible to more and more people.”
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