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Feb. 25, 2010

Amazon says it has signed a three-year patent agreement with Microsoft over the use of Linux in its Kindle eBook Readers.

The Amazon-Microsoft cross-license terms provide each company with access to the other's patent portfolio. Additionally, Amazon will pay Microsoft a certain undisclosed amount of money under the terms of the contract.

The online book distribution giant joins a growing list of embedded Linux vendors that have settled with Microsoft over the latter's patent claims. As with most other such agreements with Microsoft, it wasn't exactly clear what Microsoft patents Amazon might have infringed upon with the Kindle e-reader.

Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft says "this cross-licensing agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved."

The exact contents of the cross-licensing agreement weren't disclosed however, except to say that it covered "a broad range of products and technology, including coverage for Amazon’s popular e-reading device, the Kindle, which employs both open source and Amazon's proprietary software components, and Amazon's use of Linux-based servers, not Windows."

The so-called "Buffalo Agreement" last July occurred only a few days before Microsoft made the surprising announcement that it was releasing 20,000 lines of code under GPLv2 for three Linux device drivers, for potential contribution to the Linux kernel.

In September, Microsoft further reached out to the open source community by announcing the formation of the CodePlex Foundation, chartered with enabling the exchange of code and understanding among software companies and open source communities.

However, the Amazon agreement still demonstrates that Microsoft is continuing its pressure on companies that use Linux in their embedded devices. And that pressure appears to be somewhat selective, suggests Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin in a blog.

"It's really amazing that despite the 'broad range of products and technology' covered in their cross licensing agreement, Microsoft chose to focus on Linux and open source -- distinctly calling it out from 'proprietary software' and wasn't specific about any patents," writes Zemlin.

After the recent holiday sales season, Amazon announced that its Kindle eBokk Reader was its most gifted item over Christmas, and the most gifted item in the history of the company. Industry analysts were said to have estimated that 2009 sales of all the Kindle devices totaled over 500,000 units.

The Kindle also won the E-Reader of the Year Award at Engadget's 2009 Engadget Awards in both the Reader's Choice and Editor's Choice categories. The hot-selling, Android-based Motorola Droid also came up pretty good, winning Gadget of the Year in both Reader's and Editor's category, as well as smartphone of the year among readers.

Since launching its intellectual property licensing program in December 2003, Microsoft has signed more than 600 licensing agreements, up from over 500 only last July, says Microsoft.

Embedded Linux firms that have signed patent agreements with Microsoft include Melco Holdings, the parent company of Buffalo, which last July settled over Buffalo's Linux-based networked-attached storage (NAS) and router equipment.

Before that, Microsoft had settled with other companies such as LG Electronics, Samsung, Fuji Xerox, Kyocera Mita and Brother International.

Dutch vendor of personal navigation devices (PND) dared to resist Microsoft, resulting in a formal lawsuit against the company by Microsoft. This in turn revealed one of the key sources of the patent conflict: Microsoft's claims over the Linux implementation of the FAT file system, for which Redmond claims to own the patent.

The Droid also won editor and reader picks for best GPS device, based on its debut of the Google Maps Navigation app, while the Linux-based, navigation focused Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60 earned worst gadget of the year from the editors.

Finally, Novatel Wireless' Linux-based MiFi mobile hotspot received the editors' nod for best wireless device or technology.

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Source: Amazon.

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