Summary: Microsoft’s latest patent licensing deal isn’t like its recent Android/Chrome OS arrangements. It is with a service provider running Linux boxes in its own datacenters.
For the past couple of years, Microsoft has been on a tear of signing up Android and Chome OS device makers to license publicly unspecified Microsoft patents that Microsoft claims are infringed upon by Google’s operating systems.
On July 24, Microsoft signed a patent deal with a different kind of vendor: a software and services provider to telcos that runs its business on Linux servers.
Today’s patent agreement announced between Microsoft and Amdocs provides “mutual access to each company’s patent portfolio, including a license under Microsoft’s patent portfolio covering Amdocs’ use of Linux-based servers in its data centers,” according to Microsoft’s press release.