royalties

Amazon today announced Amazon Video Direct, a new service that will see it go head to head with YouTube as it allows independent content creators to upload content and get paid.

The service is similar to Amazon’s model with Kindle Direct Publishing for e-books, allowing independent content creators to upload their own content for consumption by users alongside Amazon’s other video content.

And creators will get to choose how they are paid, either from advertising and royalties based on the popularity of the content, or by making videos available to buy or rent through Amazon. Creators will also have the option of making the content available to all Amazon customers under the ad-supported model, or to collect royalties by making it available just to Prime subscribers or in a Prime video add-on subscription.

Amazon also has a fund for creators that will see it hand out a million dollars per month to the 100 top titles, a little bit of incentive for content creators:

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So the war continues… Motorola has been around for quite a long time, so it’s no secret they have a pretty big patent portfolio. During a keynote at the Oppenhimer Technology & Commmunications conference Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha had this to say regarding their pool of patents:

I would bring up IP as a very important for differentiation (among Android vendors). We have a very large IP portfolio, and I think in the long term, as things settle down, you will see a meaningful difference in positions of many different Android players. Both, in terms of avoidance of royalties, as well as potentially being able to collect royalties. And that will make a big difference to people who have very strong IP positions.

To sum it up Jha and company may plan to collect royalties from other Android handset manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, etc.

Houston, we have a problem.

(TechCrunch, via Unwired View)

It’s interesting how Microsoft is becoming an intellectual property vendor these days. This is all thanks to Google’s Linux-based Android operating system which incorporate Microsoft’s many patents, allowing the Redmond firm to seek royalties from handset vendors. Microsoft first forced HTC to pony up five bucks in royalties per each handset sold. The revelation has prompted pundits to note that the HTC deal earns Microsoft more money then licensing fees collected from Windows Phone partners.

Microsoft has signed a similar pact with General Dynamics Itronix and their licensing division took cash from component maker Wistron Corp., in addition to Android backers Veloicty Micro and Onkyo Corp. And now, we learn that Microsoft’s legal rottweilers are after Samsung, the leading Android handset maker, reports Reuters based on local media. Note that Microsoft already has licensing agreements in place with Samsung and LG.

Microsoft Corp has demanded that Samsung Electronics Co Ltd pay $15 for each smartphone handset it makes based on Google Inc’s Android operating system as the software giant has a wide range of patents used in the mobile platform, local media reported on Wednesday. Samsung would likely seek to lower the payment to about $10 in exchange for a deeper alliance with Microsoft for the U.S. company’s Windows platform, the Maeil Business Newspaper quoted unnamed industry officials as saying.

Let’s put it this way: Microsoft is set to make $30 million in Galaxy S 2 royalties alone based on sales of three million Galaxy S II smartphones. That’s a run-rate of twenty million handsets a year, meaning the Samsung deal could be potentially worth a cool $200 million in annual licensing fees on the Galaxy S II smartphone alone. And what happens if an Android vendor does not sign with Microsoft for patent protection?

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