Apple licensed iOS design patents to Microsoft

A Reuters reporter comments that the information came by way of Boris Teksler, Apple's director of patent licensing and strategy, who explained that the deal also contains an "anticloning" agreement. Ian Sherr, a reporter for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, elaborates that the design patents are covered under a cross-licensing agreement the companies have set up.

Cloning is at the heart of the current lawsuit, since Samsung is accused of copying some iOS design traits in its Android-based devices. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs infamously called Android "stolen," and promised to go to "thermonuclear war" over the issue. Microsoft appears to have consciously avoided mimicking iOS in versions of Windows made for phones and tablets.