Microsoft and Amazon sign a patent cross-license agreement

Microsoft announced it's signed a patent cross-license agreement with Amazon, which gives each company access to the other's patent portfolio.  This covers the Kindle, "which employs both open source and Amazon's proprietary software components ... and Amazon's use of Linux-based servers."

  Specific terms of the agreement are confidential, but Amazon will, in addition, pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount and gets access to Microsoft's patent portfolio, described by its deputy general counsel for Intellectual Property ("IP") and Licensing, Horacio Gutierrez, as "the largest and strongest in the software industry."

I guess so.  Microsoft's press release reports that it has entered into similar agreements with such companies as Apple Inc., HP, LG Electronics, Nikon Corp., Novell Inc., HOYA CORPORATION PENTAX Imaging Systems Division, Pioneer Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd.

TechSpot.com says, "Some suggest Amazon agreed to the terms to avoid a patent-infringement suit from Microsoft" and points out that Microsoft sued Tom Tom (GPS devices) over 8 patents, 3 of them related to Tom Tom's implementation of the Linux kernal, which Microsoft claims violates some of its patents.

TrustedReviews.com says that the agreement

'... allows Microsoft to get its hands on the Kindle tech, so expect it to be heavily integrated into the Windows environment over the coming months.
  For its part Amazon gets to dive into Microsoft's monstrous array of IP as it looks to expand its range of services, software and hardware ...
  All of which makes core Kindle integration into Windows Phone Series 7 about as nailed on as the chance of rain in London this decade. '