In patent battle vs. Apple, HTC and Google's Android find unlikely ally in Microsoft

What’s the saying? “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”…even if that new friend is also the enemy? 

Microsoft, this evening, issued a press release saying that it and HTC had agreed to a broad patent-sharing agreement which would help HTC fight its patent battles (with Apple).  But it isn’t just HTC’s Windows Mobile phones that the agreement covers.  Microsoft is also specifically covering Google’s Android phones as well.