Patent sale agreement avoids tech lawsuits
Microsoft, which just bought patents from AOL for $1 billion, is now turning around and selling most of them to Facebook for $550 million. Facebook is buying about 650 of the 925 AOL patents and patent applications that Microsoft bought, Microsoft and Facebook said Monday.
Facebook will also get a license to use the rest of the AOL Inc. patents that Microsoft bought. Similarly, Microsoft Corp. will get a license to use the patents Facebook is buying. This amounts to an agreement between Facebook and Microsoft not to sue each other over any of the AOL patents.
