Apple Licensed Design Patents to Microsoft Along with an ‘Anti-Cloning’ Provisions

The ongoing Apple vs Samsung court battle over patents has revealed further interesting information about how Apple operates. Just the other day it was revealed Apple had offered to license its patents to Samsung to settle back in 2010, but the South Korean company declined them. Those offers didn’t include Apple’s prized ‘unique user experience’ patents though.

Today, AllThingsD reports Apple patent licensing executive, Boris Teksler revealed the company had licensed its patents to Microsoft but included a specific ‘anti-cloning’ provision to prevent copying of of each other’s products:

“We were trying very hard to come up with an amicable resolution with Samsung,” Teksler said. “We wanted them to respect and protect our unique user experience.”
In general, Teksler said, Apple doesn’t license its design patents to any other company.

Teksler noted that Apple and Microsoft have a cross-license agreement that does cover the design patents at issue in this case, but said that there are also special “anti-cloning” provisions in the agreement between those two companies.

So essentially Apple and Microsoft won’t copy each other…that’s what’s stated on paper anyways.

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