Google and Apple end patent battle against each other

Apple-vs-Motorola

In a surprising move, Apple and Google have decided to drop all lawsuits charges against each other as reported by the Wall Street Journal, ending a long court-room battle. The agreement contains all of Apple’s patent battles against Motorola Mobility, which Google inherited when it purchased the company a couple of years ago. 

The deal, however, does not include Samsung with whom Apple has been in a court-room battle for quite a while now. Since the majority of Samsung devices run on Android, Google’s name frequently pops up in these cases but the company is formally not a part of them.

Google and Apple had about 20 lawsuits against each other in Germany and the USA until Friday. The companies officials also revealed that they would work together in “some areas of patent reform”. The truce does not contain any agreement for cross-licensing their patents though.

There is a catch in the story as well. Google is still battling Rockstar Consortium — a company formed by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony — which used the Nortel patents to sue the company back in 2011.

Here’s hoping that Apple and Samsung also end all patent litigations against each other and let their be peace in the smartphone world.