Samsung has signed up to pay Microsoft royalties for using Android in its tablets and mobile phones under a patent portfolio cross-license the pair has executed.

It's a clear acknowledgement of Android's patent pickle and Samsung's lack of faith that Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility is going to prove to be an adequate heat shield at least for Android OEMs.

And FOSS Patents points out that Samsung has 28,000 patents in the US and 100,000 worldwide, way more than Motorola Mobility.

Guess it doesn't say much about Google's chances in court against Oracle either.

Nobody said how big a tax Samsung will be paying but Samsung is supposed to sell more Android smartphones than anybody and to have the worthiest iPad rival or it did before Amazon announced its $199 Android tablet Wednesday.

Microsoft's lawyers Brad Smith and Horacio Gutierrez blogged that the Samsung deal is the seventh agreement Microsoft has signed in the past three months with Android-using hardware makers counting Acer, General Dynamics Itronix, Onkyo, Velocity Micro, ViewSonic and Wistron, not to mention HTC last year, which along with Samsung gives Microsoft the two biggest Android handset makers in the US.

That leaves, they said, Motorola Mobility, which Microsoft is currently suing, as the only major Android smartphone manufacturer in the US without a license.

Then, putting pressure on Google, they said, "We recognize that some businesses and commentators - Google chief among them - have complained about the potential impact of patents on Android and software innovation. To them, we say this: look at today's announcement. If industry leaders such as Samsung and HTC can enter into these agreements, doesn't this provide a clear path forward?...There undoubtedly will be a good deal of additional drama before this new generation of patent issues sorts itself out in its entirety. But as all of our agreements illustrate, a solution is increasingly in sight. Put in this context, today's announcement does not yet represent the beginning of the end for this industry-wide assortment of issues. But to borrow a well-known phrase, perhaps we've now reached the end of the beginning."

As part of the deal, Samsung, which already sells some Microsoft phones, also pledged to work with Microsoft on developing and selling Microsoft's Windows Phone software.

The Microsoft deal doesn't solve Samsung's Android problems with Apple.

See http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2011/09/28/our-licensing-deal-with-samsung-how-ip-drives-innovation-and-collaboration.aspx and http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/09/samsung-takes-android-patent-license.html