Microsoft And Amazon Ink Patent Cross-Licensing Deal

Microsoft And Amazon Ink Patent Cross-Licensing Deal

Microsoft and Amazon.com have signed a patent cross-licensing agreement that gives each company access to the other's patent portfolio.

The deal covers a broad range of products and technology, according to a Microsoft statement, including Amazon's Kindle e-reading device that uses a combination of proprietary and open source software.

The agreement also covers Amazon's use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft has signed a number of similar agreements with companies that sell Linux-based software or build Linux into their hardware products. In the past, Microsoft executives have maintained that components of Linux may violate Microsoft patents.

Microsoft said Amazon would pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money under the agreement. But specific terms of the deal were confidential.

"Microsoft's patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved," Horacio Gutierrez, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Intellectual Property and Licensing, Microsoft, said in a statement.

Microsoft said it has entered into more than 600 patent licensing agreements since it launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, including deals with Apple, Novell, Hewlett-Packard and Samsung.

By Rick Whiting, ChannelWeb, February 24, 2010

Synergetics the “Leader” in “Software Developer training”, is a MICROSOFT PARTNER & an IBM Training Associate for University Relationship Programs. We carry an experience base of 15+ years of having extended our services to the likes of Accenture, Cap Gemini Consulting, Computer Sciences Corp., Cognizant, Covansys, Dell, HCL Tech, HP, IBM, Infosys, LTIL, Microsoft, Mindtree, NESS, Satyam, TCS, Verizon, Wipro, and such 100+ relationships across the country.

Infosys unveils its Global Education Center at Mysore

On iTVoir News, Infosys unveils its Global Education Center at Mysore, writes Piru Mandal.

Infosys Technologies has announced the expansion of the Infosys’ Global Education Center at its Mysore Campus. Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, UPA and President of the Indian National Congress inaugurated a world-class training facility - GEC II, created to consolidate learning activities across Infosys at its Mysore campus.

Given its infrastructure and size of operations, Infosys’ Global Education Center is the largest corporate education center in the world. Located in the 337 acre Infosys Mysore campus, the total capacity of the center has been enhanced to educate 14,000 Infoscions. Infosys' total investment in the Mysore center is Rs. 2,055 crore of which Rs. 350 crore has been invested in construction of Software Development Blocks and related services and Rs.1,705 crore on education and training related infrastructure.

Infosys’ Global Education Center.

With a total built-up area of 1.44 million sq. ft, the Infosys GEC I and II can train 14,000 employees at any given time. The facility has 147 training rooms, 485 faculty rooms, 42 conference rooms, five assessment halls, an induction hall, a cyber café and two state-of-the-art libraries which can house over 140,000 books.

With a built-up area of 440,735 sq ft., GEC I has 52 training rooms, 183 faculty rooms and a state of art library that can accommodate 60,000 books. The Global Education Centre which is inaugurated today has a built up area of 1,002,095 sq. ft. GEC II has eighty four 100 seater, three 200 seater, six 60 seater and two 36 seater class rooms,5 examination halls and 302 faculty rooms.

It also has an induction hall which can seat 400 trainees, state of art library which can accommodate 80,000 books, MC room with a capacity of 40 seats with acoustically designed walls. The seating capacity of the cyber café is 236. The campus is home to participants of the foundation program. There are seven food courts that can cater to approximately 10,871 people at any given time. These multi-cuisine food courts offer various cuisines ranging from South Indian to continental food.

Synergetics is a premium brand in the Indian IT industry in the area of  people competency development engaged in delivering it thru  its training and consulting interventions; primarily focusing on their productivity with regards to the project and deliverables on hand . Its primary differentiator has been its solution centric approach and its comprehensive client focused service portfolio.

Indian IT firms should seek big acquisitions, Gartner says

On CNET News, Indian IT firms should seek big acquisitions, Gartner says Steve Ranger writes,

Indian outsourcing companies need to make big acquisitions if they are to challenge the existing world order of global IT services companies, analyst firm Gartner says.

The top six India players: Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant and HCL--collectively referred to as "Switch"--accounted for 1.9 percent of the total $672 billion IT services market in 2006. That compares with 0.5 percent in 2001, according to figures from Gartner.

Gartner said these companies are making inroads into "key" clients, often beginning with smaller, project-based work. Despite their smaller size, Gartner added, they are making "significant strides" to challenge the market share leaders' positions, by showing strong annual revenue growth far exceeding the rest of the market.

The average annual growth rate for the Indian companies was 42.4 percent in 2006, compared with a 4.3 percent growth of the market leader during the same period, the analyst group said.

Partha Iyengar, a Gartner vice president, said companies are re-evaluating their preferred vendor rankings to include Indian companies. "If the India-centric IT service providers continue to grow at the current pace, at least two companies will be a part of the top 10 companies globally," he said in a statement.

But Gartner said it will still take a number of years for Indian companies to challenge the top service providers or appear among the top three market share leaders--unless they make a major acquisition. And the analyst group said that if market share leadership in the top three is a goal, these companies would need to pursue acquisitions of "considerable size."