In a glimpse of the financial stakes in the smartphone-patent wars, Microsoft Corp. said Friday that Samsung Electronics Ltd. paid the software giant more than $1 billion for an annual fee to use Microsoft technology in Samsung phones.
Samsung sells smartphones and tablets powered by Google Inc. GOOG, +0.91% Android software. But Microsoft has said some of its patents are included in Android technologies, such as methods for displaying multiple windows in a Web browser. Therefore, Samsung and other smartphone makers pay royalty fees to Microsoft for each Android device they sell.
Neither Samsung 005930, -1.30% nor Microsoft MSFT, +0.72% have disclosed previously the size of these royalty payments.
