I'm almost through with reading Walter Isaacson's The Innovators and he covers the patent issue - Intel and TI both recognized that their respective innovations

I'm almost through with reading Walter Isaacson's The Innovators and he covers the patent issue - Intel and TI both recognized that their respective innovations were essentially simultaneous, and decided to cross-license each other's patents. And then remarkably, opened up licensing to other firms for a nominal fee. Without this, the industry could not have grown as fast as it did.