Google made news recently when it announced a cross-licensing deal with Samsung, but it's already moving on to another. The search giant has entered into a second such deal with network management firm Cisco. This might be the start of a pattern.

The specifics of the deal were not made public, but Google and Cisco did say the deal will prevent unnecessary patent lawsuits in the future. Google's deputy general counsel for patents also pointed out the company would be happy to entertain similar cross-licensing offers from other companies.

Mountain View has been trying to ease the patent tension lately. It announced its Open Patent Non-Assertion program last year with a pool of patents it made freely available, provided the licensees didn't sue over the patents. Google may be trying to tie the tech world together with these cross-licensing deals so it can better insulate itself should a full scale patent war break out. Like the saying goes, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern. Maybe another deal is already in the works.

[Reuters]