• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 30, 2015

Google and Microsoft on Wednesday announced a settlement of approximately 20 lawsuits after five years of intellectual property and patent wars in the U.S. and Germany.

"As part of the agreement, the companies will dismiss all pending patent infringement litigation between them, including cases related to Motorola Mobility," the companies said in a joint statement. "Google and Microsoft have agreed to collaborate on certain patent matters and anticipate working together in other areas in the future to benefit our customers."

For the sake of ad agency clients and advertises in general, hopefully the keywords "working together" will stick and bring harmony. "Collaboration is the new creativity," says Rob Griffin, EVP of Media Futures and Innovation at Havas Media Group.

Microsoft sued Motorola for patent infringement in 2010, and Motorola counter-sued later that year. Google inherited both lawsuits when the company acquired Motorola in 2011.

The agreement marks a new era in the relationship between Google and Microsoft.  It reflects a sentiment Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella set Aug. 10 when Sundar Pichai was named CEO of Google. Nadella tweeted congratulations to him, calling the promotion “well deserved," according to Bloomberg.