Nearly a week after networking giant Cisco revealed that the company had settled patent litigation with Rockstar, Google has also laid to rest its year-long battle with the patent consortium, though terms of the settlement weren't made public.
A court document (PDF) filed this week revealed that both parties have agreed to settle "in principle, all matters in controversy" between them, as well as signed a term sheet, which will be reduced to a definitive agreement in the coming weeks.
Created back in 2011, the Rockstar consortium is owned by some of Google's main rivals in the smartphone market, including Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Sony, and Apple. The same year, it outbid Google to buy the patent portfolio of Nortel Networks, which went bankrupt in 2009, for $4.5 billion in the biggest patent auction in history.
In October last year, the consortium sued Google as well as several handset manufacturers, including Samsung, HTC, and more, for infringing those patents, all related to search engine technology, in the search giant's Android operating system.
Back in April this year, a judge rejected a request by the patent consortium to transfer the litigation from California, where Google is headquartered, to Texas, saying that Apple and Rockstar are sufficiently linked for the case to remain in California.
However, it isn't yet clear if Rockstar has also settled with handset manufacturers.
