MUMBAI: The media was abuzz with Google acquiring the artificial intelligence start-up DeepMind for $400 million on Monday. However, today, what followed was the announcement of a patent alliance between the internet giant’s Google and Samsung. The alliance will cover a broad range of technologies and business areas and will take care of the companies’ existing patents and also those filed in the next ten years.

“We’re pleased to enter into a cross-license with our partner Samsung,” said Google Deputy General Counsel for Patents Allen Lo in a statement. “By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation.”

The companies haven’t disclosed the terms of the agreement but with this agreement, the two companies gain access to each other’s industry-leading patent portfolios, paving the way for deeper collaboration on research and development of current and future products and technologies.

“This agreement with Google is highly significant for the technology industry,” said Head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Center Dr. Seungho Ahn. “Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes.”

As far as the DeepMind acquisition is concerned, the start-up has the best techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms.