Samsung announces new patent cross-licensing agreement with Cisco

Samsung announced a new patent cross-licensing agreement with Cisco today, effectively establishing a three-way patent sharing agreement between the two companies and Google. The search giant recently inked deals with both Samsung and Cisco in an effort to protect itself against future lawsuits from patent trolls.Details on the agreement are vague, but both companies will gain access to each other’s current patents as well as any filed during the next ten years. 

The cross-license agreement with Cisco, the biggest maker of networking equipment, gives the two companies access to each other’s existing patent portfolios as well as those filed over the next 10 years, covering a broad range of products and technologies, the companies said in a joint statement Wednesday. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Such deals have become increasingly popular lately, designed less to make money than to give technology companies freedom to develop products without fear of patent suits. They are favored mainly by companies that don’t use patents as a primary source of profits.