AOL sells 800 of its patents

The global gold rush in technology patents gained speed on Monday when Microsoft agreed to pay more than $1 billion for 800 patents held by AOL.

"There is a fight for market share occurring on multiple fronts - technology, patents, advertising," said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Financial who covers Microsoft. "Microsoft, more so than others out there, has been (using) its patent portfolio as a way to generate license fees. This should strengthen that."

The deal was motivated primarily by a desire to keep the AOL patents out of the hands of Microsoft rivals, which might use them to push patent claims against the company, said a person familiar with the matter. The Redmond, Wash., software developer is considering reselling at least some AOL patents it acquired. AOL and Microsoft also have been on friendly terms concerning patents in the past.

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