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Samsung and Google have reached a broad deal to license one another’s patents.
The agreement, announced on Sunday, covers the two companies’ existing patents as well as those to be filed over the next 10 years. Samsung and Google didn’t say whether the deal covers all of their respective patents. But they did say it extends beyond mobile, and covers multiple product categories.
While noteworthy, Google and Samsung have already been largely on the same side of the global patent wars. Apple has focused its legal attention on Samsung rather than Google directly, though its arguments have sometimes centered on how Android is a copy of Apple’s iPhone operating system.
Nonetheless, both companies used the opportunity to highlight the deal as an example of choosing cooperation over litigation.
“This agreement with Google is highly significant for the technology industry,” said Dr. Seungho Ahn, the Head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Center. “Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes.”
Google deputy general counsel Allen Lo also praised the deal. “By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation,” Lo said in a statement.
Samsung has become the dominant seller of Android products, though a wide range of other electronics manufacturers sell phones and tablets running the operating system. Other significant Android-based device makers include Sony, HTC, China’s Huawei and ZTE and Google’s own Motorola unit.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
