Tencent, Google sign long-term patent cross-licensing agreement

FUZHOU -- Chinese tech giant Tencent announced Friday it has signed a long-term patent cross-licensing agreement with Google, covering a broad range of products and technologies.

Both companies are open to future deeper collaboration on innovative technologies, according to the agreement.

"We are pleased to advance the collaboration between the two leading technology companies," said Sam Xu, deputy general counsel and head of intellectual property at Tencent. "With this agreement, both companies can focus on bringing greater products and services to consumers around the world."

Meanwhile, Mike Lee, Google's patent head, said "by working together on agreements such as this, tech companies can focus on building better products and services for their users."

Tencent's social products WeChat and QQ link its users to a rich digital content catalogue including games, video, music and books, while through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people.