Japanese Hi Fi company Onkyo are among several companies who have entered into a patent agreement with Microsoft, for Android-based mobile devices.
The move comes as several Hi Fi brands move to deliver content, sound and video to Android devices after initally adopting the Apple 17 pin program for iPod attach devices.
“We are pleased that Onkyo has taken advantage of our patent licensing program for Android devices and has signed this agreement,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft. “This agreement and similar agreements recently announced evidence the momentum and success of our licensing program.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but if it’s anything like previous deals, Onkyo will pay about $5 in royalties per device sold to Microsoft. Analysts earlier this year predicted that Microsoft could seek up to $12.50 per device in royalties.
On Monday, a similar deal was announced with military subcontractor General Dynamics and yesterday, Velocity Micro signed a deal for its Android tablets and e-readers. Probably the biggest agreement was with HTC, which sells an estimated 30 million phones a year.
Microsoft has been lively in the IP licensing arena, having signed 700 patent licensing agreements since December 2003.
