Google agrees to patent deal with Verizon

Today, Verizon announced that they had agreed to a patent licensing agreement with Google. Verizon cited the need to “lower the risk of frivolous patent litigation” as the main reason for the agreement.

The deal bars Google from suing Verizon over thousands of patents that Verizon owns or will acquire in the next five years. Both Verizon and Google are protected from the other if either sells a patent to another company, and that company attempts a lawsuit.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is said to be in talks with a number of other network providers for patent-related agreements. In fact, Google has already signed patent agreements this year with Samsung, Cisco and LG Electronics.

Over the last five years, total patent cases filed in district courts have more than doubled. In 2013 alone, there were over 6,000 new patent cases filed in district courts, compared to 5,418 new patent cases filed in 2012, a 12.4% increase. To nobody’s surprise, nonpracticing entities (NPEs) filed 67 percent of all new patent infringement lawsuits in 2013, according to the RPX Corporation’s 2013 NPE Litigation Report.

Neither Verizon or Google would say whether any money was involved in the deal.