Microsoft and Primax Electronics Ltd. of Taiwan say they've reached a licensing deal over the Redmond company's patented mouse technologies, resolving a complaint that Microsoft filed this summer with the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Although it's not unusual for Microsoft to be involved in patent litigation, the company is more often the defendant. The patents in this case related to Microsoft's "tilt-wheel" technology on computer mice, and its "U2" technology for connecting mice to computers.

Microsoft has been accused of saber-rattling over patent violations it has alleged in Linux and other open-source software. But the company says it prefers to reach amicable agreements rather than going to court.

"We're not a company that's prone to offensive patent litigation," said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel for intellectual property and licensing. "In fact we've done it only in very exceptional cases, I would say to a much lesser degree than most other companies in the technology industry."

In the Primax case, Gutierrez said, Microsoft decided to file a complaint to protect its intellectual property portfolio but also because there are a significant number of other companies that license the same technologies. It wasn't right for them to be held to a higher standard than Primax was, he said.

Separately, Microsoft yesterday settled a series of longstanding patent disputes with Alcatel-Lucent.