Microsoft Sees Revenue Opportunity in Phone Patents | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

Interesting times

At the moment, there is chaos in the phone patent arena with Apple suing HTC, Microsoft suing Motorola and Oracle suing Google, to list just a partial court docket. However, Smith said he would not be at all surprised to see things shake out in the next couple years into a manageable patent licensing arrangement, not unlike the one that exists with the radio portion of a cell phone today.

About $20 per modern phone goes to patents, with the lion’s share of that going to Qualcomm. On the smartphone side, Smith said Microsoft and Apple hold the lion’s share of the intellectual property.

Microsoft Sees Revenue Opportunity in Phone Patents | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD