Microsoft and NEC have signed a patent cross-licensing agreement covering IT and networking technology, the companies said Wednesday.
The agreement was signed as part of a broader alliance covering product development cooperation in several different technology areas. The work will include integration of NEC’s Univerge servers with Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005 to strengthen NEC’s voice-over-IP (VoIP) offerings.
Such work touches upon many technologies in the IT and networking fields and could include a broad array of patents, said Kazuhiko Kobayashi, executive vice president of NEC, at a Tokyo news conference.
“If we have to worry about patents, the development [work] will not be done in a smooth manner, so in order to achieve our goals quickly we need this agreement,” said Kobayashi.
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| NEC President Kaoru Yano and MS CEO Steve Ballmer |
Microsoft decided in December 2003 to pursue patent cross-licensing agreements with key partners. It has since signed a number of deals with companies including Siemens, SAP and Toshiba.
-Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
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