Cell phone patent fight heats up

Cell phone patent fight heats up - Yahoo! News: "A simple news release crossed the wire Wednesday morning, with Microsoft announcing that 'Microsoft Corp. and HTC Corp. have signed a patent agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for HTC’s mobile phones running the Android mobile platform.'

On any other day and any other part of the tech industry, this would be business as usual. Patent agreements and cross-license deals are announced every day, and no one raises an eyebrow.

But this deal covers the now-cutthroat world of cell phones, where Microsoft is once again trying to make a move toward relevance with the help of its just-announced Windows Phone 7 operating system, set to be released this fall.

Microsoft certainly has its work cut out for it. The iPhone has been an unstoppable juggernaut, and Google's Android operating system has made some enormous strides, by some measures even surpassing the popularity of the iPhone. And then there's the Blackberry, still keeping the corporate mobility dream alive.

So what's going on with this HTC deal? With this announcement HTC is essentially confessing that it is using some of Microsoft's patents in its hardware, CNET reports, and is heading off a lawsuit that could push HTC phones like the Nexus One off the market. Now HTC will be paying Microsoft when it sells hardware, which won't be great for the coffers, because HTC is currently also embroiled with a lawsuit from Apple over this very issue. HTC already makes Windows Mobile hardware, too, so this deal should expand HTC's ability to continue to do so without fear of crossing a patent line.

But there's more to it than just Android and Windows making nice.

Fast Company's Kit Eaton smartly connects the dots, saying Microsoft and HTC are effectively joining forces with this agreement in order to fight Apple as 'a smartphone IP bloc' that will help both Android and Windows Phone 7 to improve their chances of success in an Apple-dominated world.

Will it work? The iPhone's success story has few parallels in recent years, and betting against Apple right now would be folly. This move does at least give the others a fighting chance.

— Christopher Null is a technology writer for Yahoo! News."