Amazon and Microsoft have agreed to a cross-licensing regarding the Kindle

1st March, 2010 by adina
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Amazon and Microsoft have recently agreed to a cross-licensing for each other’s patents. According to this deal, Microsoft will have special access to technology behind the Kindle e-book reader as well as the implementation of Linux on servers by Amazon. Detailed terms of the deal have not been revealed and it is not known what technology Amazon would receive, but it is sure that Microsoft will receive an unmentioned sum from the online retailer as part of this transaction.

Microsoft did not disclose its plans for the deal but admitted the transaction would allow it to be “more creative and collaborative” and also speed up the launch of new products.

This deal confirms rumours regarding Microsoft’s intention of entering the e-reader market and comes in the middle of talks about the Courier tablet still in development stages. Microsoft has shown only an incidental interest in e-book readers by now but is believed to have started the development of the dual touchscreen-based, agenda-like device to rethink its destination of a tablet computer. It happens that Microsoft has never officially admitted the Courier would exist, but it is sure that the existence of the iPad has put a lot of pressure on Microsoft to turn the device into a competitor for the iPad and to prevent Apple from gaining control over this category of devices.

Less clear are the reasons for the Linux server aspects of the cross-license, but cloud-based services, such as the Kindle’s Whispersync for automatic downloading and the S3 online storage services could be involved.


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