Microsoft believes transparency is imperative when it comes to patents, launches patent tracker

With all the fuss over patents, especially between Microsoft and Google recently, the software giant has expressed its new-found belief that transparency is imperative when it comes to patents. On top of that, Microsoft has launched a patent tracker to showcase every single patent that the company owns.

“Transparency around patent ownership will help prevent gamesmanship by companies that seek to lie in wait and “hold up” companies rather than enable a well-functioning secondary market. Of equal importance, transparency is a prerequisite to enforceability of patent licensing pledges, whether to standards bodies or to the world at large,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.

Via the company’s new patent tracker, one can search an entire downloadable Excel file for Microsoft’s patents or simply search by patent number, patent title, country, and if the patent is held by Microsoft or a subsidiary.

Microsoft believes that transparency is important and without transparency, it would be impossible to determine is a company is ‘abiding by those commitments.’ Microsoft wants other company’s to jump on board this bandwagon and do the same.