Sprint on Friday announced that it has terminated its agreement with LightSquared. The two companies agreed last June to an 11-year deal that would share network expansion costs and equipment if LightSquared could secure regulatory approval for its 4G LTE network build-out. “Sprint has been and continues to be supportive of LightSquared’s business plans and appreciates the company’s efforts to find a resolution to the interference issues impacting its ability to offer service on the 1.6 GHz spectrum...

Nokia’s fourth-quarter earnings report painted a grim picture of the Finnish phone maker’s business last quarter, but amid the red numbers peppered throughout Nokia’s earnings release, the high-level terms of its agreement with Microsoft were revealed. In exchange for royalty payments estimated to reach into the billions over the life of the agreement, Microsoft makes quarterly “platform support payments” of $250 million to Nokia according to the vendor’s earnings report. ...

Mozilla announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with Google in which Google Search will remain the default search engine in Firefox for the next three years. “Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come,” said Google’s senior vice president of search, Alan Eustace. While terms of the agreement remain confidential, Mozilla reported in October that its partnership with Google helped the company a...

Sprint and Clearwire on Thursday announced a new 4G LTE and WiMAX agreement that will extend over the next few years. The agreement could be worth up to $1.6 billion over the next four years for Clearwire, which it will earn selling its services to Sprint. “These agreements are a result of the technical MOU we outlined during our third quarter results call and extend our relationship with Clearwire,” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said. “It provides Sprint improved pricing, allows us to continue to pr...

Microsoft and Amazon signed a licensing agreement in February last year that covers technology used in the Kindle and various other products. That agreement does not cover Amazon’s new Android-powered Kindle Fire tablet, BGR has learned, which means Amazon could be coughing up hefty licensing fees to Microsoft in the near future. The Redmond-based company recently signed a cross-licensing agreement with Samsung and has similar deals in place with HTC, ViewSonic and other Android device vendors. Microsof...

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has signed a cross-licensing agreement with Samsung. As a result, will pay Microsoft royalties for its Android-powered smartphones and tablets. Additionally, Microsoft said the two firms will continue to cooperate on the Windows Phone operating system. “Through the cross-licensing of our respective patent portfolios, Samsung and Microsoft can continue to bring the latest innovations to the mobile industry,” executive vice president of global product strate...

Dolby dropped a patent infringement case against Research In Motion after the two sides reached a licensing agreement, Reuters reported on Monday. Dolby filed a lawsuit against RIM on June 15th in the United States and in Germany in an attempt to block sales of BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry PlayBook. The audio company also sought to recover financial damages. Dolby accused RIM of using its “highly efficient digital audio compression technologies” and filed a suit after RIM initially de...

Sony and LG have reached an agreement over a patent battle that involved several consumer electronics devices including televisions, the PlayStation 3 and phones, Reuters reported on Thursday. The two companies have agreed to enter a cross-licensing deal. “LG and Sony recently agreed to drop patent infringement lawsuits against each other,” an LG spokeswoman confirmed. Sony originally filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in an attempt to block the sale of several LG phone...

As a result of a recent patent complaint filed in Australia by Apple, Samsung has agreed not to sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 Honeycomb tablet in the region. The exact terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but we had a feeling that wouldn’t be the last we would hear on the subject. On Tuesday, Australian Android news site Ausdroid got Samsung’s statement on the matter and as expected, the South Korea-based company says its 10-inch tablet will soon see the light of day down under. “A Samsung ...

Verizon Wireless and American Express announced on Monday that Verizon Wireless will begin to integrate American Express’ “Serve” mobile payment solution into its phones and tablets. The agreement will allow Verizon Wireless customers to make mobile payments from their phones, provided that they have an existing Serve account. “Our collaboration with Verizon highlights the speed at which Serve is evolving to reach a wide audience,” said Dan Schulman, group president, Enterprise G...

Amazon announced on Thursday that it has inked an agreement with NBCUniversal to provide its subscription customers with access to 1,000 Universal Pictures movies. The deal is in addition to the online retailer’s recent agreement with CBS to offer shows such as Star Trek and Cheers to its customers. The new content includes films such as Being John Malkovich, Jetsons, Flipper, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Billy Elliott. Amazon is largely expected to release at least one tablet in the coming months...

Acer’s former chief executive Gianfranco Lanci may join Samsung to assist with building the Korean firm’s notebook business, DigiTimes reported on Monday. Gianfranco Lanci resigned from Acer in March of this year after the company hit a rough patch. Rumor has it Lanci’s attractive management expertise in European sales channels attracted both Dell and Samsung as suitors. DigiTimes said Lanci signed a one-year non-compete agreement with Acer when he left his executive role, however Samsung wi...

Lodsys, the company that has been accusing iOS and Android developers of illegally using its in-app purchasing technology, is now also targeting high-profile gaming firms such as Atari, Electronic Arts, Angry Birds lab Rovio, Square Enix and Take-Two Interactive. According to FOSS Patents, Lodsys had this to say about Rovio:Defendant Rovio has infringed and continues to infringe, directly, indirectly, literally, under the doctrine of equivalents, contributorily, and/or through the inducement of other, one or ...

Amazon and CBS have reached a licensing deal in which CBS will provide Amazon Prime subscribers with access to its television shows.The deal will add 2,000 TV episodes from popular shows such as The Tudors, Medium, Frasier, Cheers, Numb3rs, and the full Star Trek franchise to the Amazon Prime library, which already has more than 8,000 movies and TV shows. Amazon expects the content to be available during this summer and it confirmed that its Instant Video customers will also have access to the library. Read o...