Microsoft Has Apple Rights Samsung Snubbed

Microsoft holds rights to Apple patents that are broader than the deal Apple was willing to cut with Samsung in 2010 but they’re circumscribed by a “no cloning” provision. Apple’s patent licensing and strategy director Boris Teksler said so Monday in the Apple v Samsung trial in California. Microsoft’s rights to Apple design and feature patents may derive from a cross-license the companies signed in 1997. Teksler didn’t say if the pact was updated or new, given Microsoft’s coming adventure in tablets, how long it runs or whether money is involved.

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