Microsoft to Buy AOL Patents for More Than $1 Billion ? Clearing ...

The lofty price ? $1.3 million a patent ? reflects the crucial role that patents are increasingly playing in the business and legal strategies of the world?s major technology companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Samsung and HTC.

Patents that can be applied to both smartphones and tablet computers, which use much the same technology, are valued assets and feared weapons, as the market for those devices booms. Companies are battling in the marketplace and in courtrooms around the world, where patent claims and counterclaims are filed almost daily.

?Microsoft is increasing its arsenal, even if it is expensive,? said James E. Bessen, a patent expert and lecturer at the Boston University School of Law.

And AOL, an online pioneer, is increasingly shifting its focus to media, acquiring The Huffington Post and TechCrunch, a technology news and gossip site. The patents it is selling include early Internet patents that involve search, e-mail, instant messaging and custom online advertisements, according to an analysis by 3LP Advisors, a patent consulting firm in Silicon Valley.

?This is all stuff that companies want to ? and are putting in smartphones,? said Kevin G. Rivette, a managing partner of 3LP.

Microsoft has used its deep stockpile of computing patents to prod smartphone makers to pay it licensing fees. So, analysts say, adding more patents promises to strengthen its negotiating and legal position with rivals like Google and Apple ? and handset makers using Google?s Android software including HTC, Samsung and LG.

Prices for patents are rising as the big companies load up. Google last August agreed to pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility, a mobile phone maker with a trove of 17,000 patents. That portfolio, analysts estimate, could represent more than half the value of the deal, or more than $400,000 a patent.

Last year, Apple and Microsoft teamed up with four other companies to pay $4.5 billion for the 6,000 patents held by the bankrupt Canadian telecommunications maker Nortel Networks. That worked out to $750,000 a patent, or nearly four times the average for computer, software and telecommunications patents a few years earlier, experts say.

Last month, Facebook said it had bought 750 patents from I.B.M. for an undisclosed sum, shortly after the social networking giant was hit with a patent lawsuit by Yahoo.

Fierce patent battles have occurred throughout industrial history. The steam engine, automobile and airplane, as they opened big new markets, prompted patent wars, noted David J. Kappos, director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

?But those wars played themselves out in slow motion compared to what we?re seeing now,? Mr. Kappos said. ?What?s different is the pace of technological change and market development. So the stakes are a lot higher, a lot faster.?

In the past, patents were often bought by specialist patent firms from start-ups that had failed, and used in suits against major technology companies to reach lucrative settlements or win big paydays in court. These days, though, big companies are increasingly using patents as strategic tools, said Colleen Chien, an assistant professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law.

The specialist patent holders, sometimes called trolls, are still around, but the main litigation and deal-making now are among big companies themselves, Professor Chien said. ?These major companies are using patents to gain competitive advantage rather than just seeing patents as financial assets,? she said.

AOL?s slow progress as it transforms into a media company supported by advertising has brought pressure from restive institutional shareholders. The patent sale ? AOL will hold onto 300 others ? is intended to help with both objectives.

The deal ?unlocks current dollar value for our shareholders and enables AOL to continue to aggressively execute on our strategy,? Tim Armstrong, AOL?s chief, said in a statement.

While Microsoft is struggling in the smartphone market, it is doing a brisk business in licensing its intellectual property to smartphone makers using rival software, analysts say.

The company has struck licensing deals with handset makers that account for 70 percent of sales of Android-powered phones in the United States, including HTC, Samsung and LG. Analysts estimate that Microsoft makes more on every Android phone sold than on each phone running its Windows Phone software.

Microsoft has roughly 20,000 granted patents, not counting applications pending ? about four times what Apple holds, estimates M-Cam, a patent advisory firm. A smartphone is essentially a combination of computer and telecommunications technology, and Microsoft has a deep store of patents in computing.

Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.

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