[NewsPoster]

Microsoft and Samsung have ceased the most recent round of legal hostilities over unpaid Android patent royalties due to the Surface maker. As expected, very few details are known about the deal, with both companies identically saying little more than "Samsung and Microsoft are pleased to announce that they have ended their contract dispute in US court as well as the ICC arbitration. Terms of the agreement are confidential."

Microsoft's lawsuit was launched last August, alleging that the Korean company had stopped paying royalties for Android-related patents. According to the court filing and Samsung itself, Samsung stopped making the payments from the 2011 lawsuit-ending agreement after Microsoft entered into a deal to purchase Nokia.

"After becoming the leading player in the worldwide smartphone market, Samsung decided late last year to stop complying with its agreement with Microsoft," said Microsoft's deputy counsel David Howard at the time of filing the suit.

The original 2011 agreement ended a patent war between the two companies, and worked almost uniformly in Microsoft's favor. The deal saw Samsung both pay royalties for allegedly using Microsoft patents in Android, as well as helping to develop and market Windows Phone hardware. Exact terms of the that deal weren't discussed either, but Google famously called the deal "extortion."

[avgeek75]

Samsung probably struck a deal to roll MS apps and services into their next series of devices. This may give them additional leverage against Google and competitors such as LG, HTC, etc. They may even be able to leverage this to sell more Tizen devices. In exchange, MS writes off the outstanding royalties and extends their mobile software and services reach.