Well over a year ago, Apple and Google announced an armistice under which they withdrew all pending patent infringement lawsuits against one another. I described that one as a second-class settlement from a position of mutual weakness. I still stand by that assessment, with one modification: Google actually got a better deal than Apple. Here's why:While Google had to give up its original hopes that Motorola's patents could force Apple into a patent cross-license agreement covering the entire Android ecosystem, Google and its partners can also achieve patent peace by getting all the Apple patents invalidated (or narrowed beyond recognition) that have been or could be asserted against Android. Unlike Motorola (prior to being sold to Google for the first time, which later sold it on to Lenovo), Google never wanted to impose a patent tax on Apple: it just wanted its ecosystem to be left alone. Apple hasn't brought any new infringement cases against Android device…
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