Microsoft: We'll Help Customers Create Patents But We Get a License To Use Them (zdnet.com)

Microsoft outlined a new intellectual-property policy on Thursday for co-developed technology that embraces open source and seeks to assure customers it won't run off with their innovations. From a report: The shared innovation principles build on its Azure IP Advantage program for helping customers combat patent trolls. The new principles for co-developed innovation cover ownership of existing technology, customer ownership of new patents, support for open source, licensing new IP back to Microsoft, software portability, transparency, and learning. Microsoft president Brad Smith says the principles aim to assuage customers' fears that Microsoft may end up using co-developed technology to rival them.

[...] In return, Microsoft gets to license back any of the patents in the new technology but promises to limit their use to improving its own platform technologies, such as Azure, Azure AI services, Office 365, Windows, Xbox, and HoloLens. It also reserves the right to use "code and tools developed by or on behalf of Microsoft that are intended to provide technical assistance to customers in their respective businesses."

Comments

The irony is thick

[Anonymous Coward]

A patent troll saying they'll help you with patents? This is rich, even for Microsoft.

For a fee...

[jd]

...Microsoft will troll you with your own patents. It's a superb get-rich-quick scheme.

Dumb Dumb Remember Spyglass, everyone?

[ckaminski]

To anyone choosing to suck on this carrot, may I remind everyone what happened with Internet Explorer and Sypglass?

While I'm skeptical about the service..

[Junta]

If I were a technology company, I wouldn't want to go anywhere near other people's future without something like a license to use the patents.

I would be in great fear that someone in my company would do something that resembles a private draft of a patent one of those users is working on. This happens all the time by coincidence, but having access to customer research/draft prior to patent application just raises a lot more suspicion if you happen to do the same or similar thing as that research goes to.

If you want a service to help you with patents and you want to keep control of it, you go to a legal company, not a technology company that is likely to have a conflict of interest.