Daimler is in talks with Toyota to buy hybrid components from Toyota.  See this Edmund’s article.

One angle the media often overlooks is that a benefit to buying Toyota’s technology, versus developing your own, is that Toyota’s technology comes with an implied warranty against patent infringement. Toyota’s patent position in hybrid technology is huge, whereas Daimler’s is quite small. For example, a search of Google Patents for the term “hybrid” with “Daimler” in the assignee field nets 23 hits. Switch Daimler to Toyota, and you have 137 hits. This is a real blunt instrument to gauge patent positions, but it does show that Toyota is bigger – probably much bigger.

It all begs the question – is Daimler buying parts, or are they buying licenses that come with free parts?