"It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic ... don't you think?"
-- From "Ironic," by Alanis Morrissette, 1995. (Ironically, the belated pardon is perhaps the only case of true irony in this song.)

Two months ago, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) sued mobile phone designer HTC over a bunch of technology patents. Fellow Fool and general Apple lover Tim Beyers wondered aloud "how this suit accomplishes anything positive for Apple." The Cupertino colossus came out looking like a big, mean schoolyard bully, shaking the other kids down for their lunch money.

HTC appears to have taken that incident seriously, though. Today, the company signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to protect its right to make Android phones without worrying about a lawsuit from Mr. Softy.

Now, that's another bass-ackwards turn of events -- HTC is paying Microsoft for something that Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) controls? What's wrong with this picture?

Well, from HTC's perspective, it makes sense in a twisted kind of way. Microsoft has a strong patent portfolio in mobile computing, along with a propensity to go after patent infringers in court. Moreover, HTC has been making phones with Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system for years, and it would probably hate to lose a business partner over some petty patent dispute. There's no such business relationship between HTC and Apple.

HTC might be setting a precedent for other Android partners who want to cover their backsides. Will Motorola (NYSE: MOT) smoke a licensing peace pipe with Microsoft before releasing a follow-up to the Droid? Should Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) sign on the dotted line before taking an Android-powered tablet computer to market? The same question goes for Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) as it readies its own Android-powered mini-tablets and expands its Android smartphones to new markets. While HTC is a strong mobile partner of Microsoft, HP and Dell have far more ties to the Redmond giant across their PC, server, and service offerings.

You could say that Apple opened a fresh revenue stream for archrival Microsoft here. Don't you just love cosmic irony?