Smartphone giants Apple and Google have decided to call a truce on the long running patent war between them.
Apple and Google have been in constant battles to gain the lion's share of the tech world. The two multinational companies have been involved in a long-running blame game over patent issues. But the companies have worked things out and at last reached an agreement late Friday, agreeing to dismiss all lawsuits against each other and promise to work together for patent reform.
"Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies. Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform. The agreement does not include a cross license." according to ABC News.
Apple and Google were pitted against each other during a trial that kicked off in 2010 involving Motorola Mobility. It accused Apple of infringing several patents, including one essential to how cell phones operate on a 3G network, while Apple said Motorola violated its patents to certain smartphone features.
According to a BBC News report, the two companies informed a federal appeals court in Washington that the cases should be dismissed. However, the dismissal doesn't apply to Apple's litigation against Samsung Electronics, as no dismissal notices were filed in those cases.
After Google acquired Motorola Mobility in 2012, it sold the hardware maker off in pieces but retained a valuable trove of patents. Once considered to be a giant in the smartphone industry, Motorola now accounts for only 7 percent of the U.S. smartphone industry. The move is sensible as Google is in the process of selling the Motorola business to Lenovo for $2.9 billion.
This is not the first time Apple has come to an agreement over patent issues. It also called a truce with HTC in 2012. However, unlike the current agreement with Google, the 2012 truce involved terms in which Apple and HTC granted each other licenses for certain disputed patents.
