Microsoft and Google in licence to share pact

Microsoft has licensed its technical know-how to nearly every company, including rivals such as Apple and Nokia and now it can add Google to the list.

To help power the Google Sync product, announced on Monday, the search giant has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol for sharing information between a server and mobile phone.

Google Sync allows users to synchronise their contacts, and in some cases calendar information, with Google's web-based services. It works with a range of phones including Windows Mobile phones, Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry, and phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

Generally, companies have licensed the ActiveSync protocol to link data between a mobile phone and a Microsoft Exchange server. In this case, though, Google is using ActiveSync to link Google data from their servers to mobile phones.

Although Google and Microsoft have co-operated in some areas in the past, the deal on Monday is the first announced example of one of those companies licensing the other's intellectual property, according to Microsoft.

Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's top intellectual property lawyer touted the move.

Gutierrez said in a statement: "Google's licensing of these Microsoft patents relating to the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol is a clear [acknowledgment] of the innovation taking place at Microsoft.

"This agreement is also a great example of Microsoft's openness to generally license our patents under fair and reasonable terms so long as licensees respect Microsoft intellectual property."

Gutierrez noted that the company has struck more than 500 licensing deals since it began its intellectual property-sharing push in 2003.

On the subject of Exchange synchronising to an Android device, however: "Android is not covered by this agreement," a Microsoft representative told silicon.com sister site CNET News.

Original article: Microsoft, Google in rare technology pact from CNET News.com