| Microsoft expands access to its intellectual property portfolio |
Dec. 04, 2003
Microsoft announced what it calls an expanded intellectual property (IP) policy which will provide the IT industry with increased access to Microsoft's IP portfolio, furthering interoperability with other technologies. The policy also broadens the academic community's access to Microsoft IP under royalty-free terms for noncommercial use, Microsoft says. Additionally Microsoft announced the addition of two new IP licensing programs: one for ClearType, and the other for Microsoft's File Allocation Table (FAT) filesystem.
"Many in the industry have been asking Microsoft to clarify our licensing policy and to provide broader availability to our IP portfolio," commented Brad Smith, general counsel and senior vice president at Microsoft. "The changes we are announcing today will promote greater collaboration across our industry, and we look forward to partnering with a broad range of companies."
Microsoft says it has been licensing IP on a limited basis since its initial formation and has established cross-licensing agreements with a variety of industry leaders. According to Microsoft, the new policy will expand its cross-licensing initiatives and will enable smaller companies and others to license aspects of the company's "increasingly expansive" IP portfolio.
"Access to and exchange of IP is essential to the growth and development of the broad IT industry," according to Microsoft corporate vice president and deputy general counsel Marshall Phelps, who is responsible for managing Microsoft's IP portfolio, and the increasing requests for IP access. "The licensing discussions with Agfa Monotype and Lexar Media, as well as our work with academia and industry organizations, signal our intention to increase our partnering with the industry as part of the broad, commercially progressive IP marketplace. We are open for business and want to create win-win opportunities with the industry."
"By opening up more of its IP portfolio to licensing, Microsoft will allow other companies to leverage its creativity," said Herve Gallaire, chief technical officer and president, Xerox Innovation Group. "Xerox has been licensing its IP for many years. With thousands of patents in our portfolio, we have seen the inventiveness of our researchers yield considerable benefit not only to Xerox, but also to others that have licensed our patented technologies."
Continued commitment to royalty-free programs and academia
As part of the new IP policy, Microsoft said it will create programs to license IP rights on both royalty-free and royalty-bearing terms, consistent with industry norms. For example, the company is committing to provide IP to the academic community under royalty-free terms for noncommercial use to further research and development. This builds on Microsoft's growing base of initiatives to license certain IP rights on a royalty-free basis to promote Web standards and, through its Shared Source programs, to provide access to source code for a variety of Microsoft solutions to developers, partners, customers, academics and the industry.
In addition, Microsoft recently announced the availability of a royalty-free licensing program for its Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas. Microsoft also emphasized it will continue its existing approach of licensing intellectual property royalty-free to Windows-based application developers through the company's software development kit offerings.
ClearType and FAT filesystem IP licensing
As part of this initiative, Microsoft is announcing the availability of two new licensing offerings: one for ClearType technology and the other for Microsoft's FAT file system. Microsoft says these offerings will be made available under "fair and reasonable terms," and that both technologies already have experienced early adoption and support.
The two are described as follows: - ClearType -- Microsoft's subpixel rendering technology, branded ClearType, improves the readability of text on liquid crystal display screens to a point where words look almost as sharp and clear as those on a printed piece of paper. The popularity of this technology and its broad applicability for a range of digital devices led a number of companies to ask for licenses from Microsoft.
"As the world's leader in fonts and font technologies, Agfa Monotype has developed high-performance solutions such as iType, a font-rendering subsystem operating in millions of consumer electronics devices worldwide," said Steve Kuhlman, vice president of Display Imaging at Agfa Monotype. "By licensing its subpixel rendering intellectual property for inclusion in iType, Microsoft is making it possible for manufacturers to build products that deliver even clearer, more readable digital text."
- FAT file system -- The FAT file system is a popular file storage format used for exchanging media between computers and digital devices. Through FAT file system technology, operating systems can identify unused storage clusters and keep track of all file parts across the storage medium. The result, for implementers of the technology, is rapid identification and access to any part of a file while maximizing full use of the storage medium. By licensing documentation, sample code and patents to this technology, Microsoft makes it easier for other companies to take advantage of enhanced file transfer compatibility and build effective, compatible implementations of the FAT file system in their offerings.
"Lexar Media is glad to support Microsoft's goal of standardizing the industry around the FAT file system, which will further ensure interoperability of our memory cards, cameras and other consumer devices," said Jim Gustke, general manager of marketing of Lexar Media. "We believe that such standardization will prompt more consumers to buy Flash storage products, as well as accelerate the innovation of new technologies to fuel the demand for memory cards with capacities of 4 GB and higher." Further info
Additional information on Microsoft's intellectual property licensing initiatives can be found here.
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