According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, consumer electronics giants Apple Inc (AAPL) and Google (GOOGL)’s Motorola Mobility unit have agreed to settle all existing patent lawsuits they had brought against each other over technology patents.
In a joint statement on Friday, which marked the end of one of the tech industry’s most vicious and high-profile patent infringement lawsuits, the companies said they would work together to reform the patent system.
“Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies,” read the statement issued by the pair. “Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform.” The settlement does not include licensing their technology to each other.
This agreement would dismiss more than 20 lawsuits involving Apple and Google in the U.S. and Germany over whether or not Android platform, which is now installed on some 80% of new smartphones sold every year, copied elements of iOS prompted by Google’s 2010, $12.5 billion Motorola acquisition.
The patent litigation that started with Motorola filing against Apple in U.S. federal court four years ago, a move that prompted Cupertino to fire back with a patent infringement lawsuit of its own, have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees to each side.
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