Microsoft Interoperability Program
The Microsoft Interoperability Program (MIP) facilitates the use and implementation of technical specifications for certain protocols, file formats, standards, and languages used or implemented in certain Microsoft products. Those specifications are listed and available here.
The patents that cover the MIP technical specifications are available via a patent license or a patent covenant agreement.
Microsoft is committed to working constructively and in a spirit of good faith to craft appropriate royalties and customized licenses or covenant agreements that may depart from programmatic offerings to address individual company needs and circumstances.
If you have questions about the MIP Patent License or Patent Covenant Agreements, please email the MIP Licensing Team.
To assist in determining whether a patent license or patent covenant agreement may be beneficial, Microsoft provides the following list of patents and patent applications that may cover the MIP technical specifications. Some of the patents that cover the technical specifications for Microsoft protocols, file formats, standards documentation, and XAML are available at no charge under the Open Specification Promise or the Community Promise.
Microsoft has made patent pledges with respect to:
Microsoft has also made available, under MIP, a Warranty Agreement. This Agreement warrants the MIP technical specifications and the implementation of specific standards in certain versions of Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint, as well as Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Outlook.
Microsoft designed MIP to meet the agreement to make protocol, binary file formats, and languages technology along with information regarding its implementations of certain standards available to relevant parties and to allow the use of such information in the manner required in the
Interoperability Undertaking entered into by Microsoft and the European Commission on December 16, 2009.
