SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Apple's patent licensing chief said on Monday that an earlier cross-licensing deal allowed Microsoft access to a host of its design and feature patents, but prohibited the copying of Apple's own products.
Apple patent licensing director Boris Teksler made the disclosure during testimony in the company's trial against Samsung, which could wrap up as soon as next week. It's not clear how long the cross-licensing deal he mentioned has been in place, or how long it will last.
"All these patents are in Apple's unique user experience, and not ones we would license," Teksler said during the redirect portion of his testimony. He said the Apple-Microsoft cross license covers design patents, but added that Apple added "special prohibitions" with an anti-cloning provision.
"There's peace to each other's products; there's a clear acknowledgement that there's no cloning," he said. Teksler added that Microsoft did not receive special rights.
Neither Apple nor Microsoft have disclosed the details of their cross-licensing agreement in public, which is common enough in such deals. But some fine print could spill out as a result of this case, given that Apple and Samsung have had to open up their books to the each other.
In an order last week, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled to... [Read more]
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