Microsoft's antitrust settlement with the US Justice Department
in November 2001 required it to disclose software code used by
Windows, to help rivals make their products interoperable with its
dominant operating system.
But when it first made the code available, it did so on terms
that Sun Microsystems and others deemed unreasonable. The Justice
Department intervened and the terms were eased. However, by October
this year, only nine companies had signed up, prompting further
questions.
Nevertheless, a shift had begun. It was followed by an
announcement that the XML (extensible markup language) based file
formats for the most recent Office suite would be available for
royalty-free licensing from 5th December. Today's announcement
opens the door still further.
According to Microsoft, the company has always been licensing
its IP on a limited, case-by-case basis and had established
cross-licensing agreements with a variety of industry leaders. The
new policy will expand these cross-licensing initiatives, and allow
smaller companies to obtain licenses too.
The new policy will follow industry norms, says Microsoft, by
offering licenses on both royalty-free and royalty-bearing terms.
In particular, the academic community will be permitted to obtain
royalty-free licenses for the purposes of non-commercial research
and development.
Microsoft also announced the availability on "fair and
reasonable terms" of two specific licenses: one for ClearType
technology and the other for Microsoft's FAT file system. Both
offerings have already been adopted by at least one
licensee, ClearType by font publisher Agfa Monotype, and the
FAT file system by Lexar Media.
"Many in the industry have been asking Microsoft to clarify our
licensing policy and to provide broader availability to our IP
portfolio," said 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 is still awaiting the results of a long-running
antitrust investigation by the European Commission, which held a
three-day hearing in November at which Microsoft put forward its
responses to the Commission's Statement of Objections. This
Statement had indicated that Microsoft would be found in breach of
EU law.
Brad Smith told CNET News.com that this had not been a
consideration, saying "I really don't see this announcement as
relating directly to the issues in Brussels".
