Patent Rights > Principles Licensing
Interoperability Principles Protocol Licensing
As part of the Microsoft Interoperability Principles, Microsoft commits that all the protocols in its high-volume products that are used by any other Microsoft product will be made openly available to the developer community in a nondiscriminatory fashion. These Open Protocols may include protocols that implement industry standards.
Patent Licensing
A number of specifications for Open Protocols implemented in our high-volume products are covered by our Open Specification Promise, under which patent rights are available at no charge. In addition, Microsoft will also make available patent licenses for other Open Protocols at low royalty rates.
In that regard, in addition to patent licenses available under WSPP and MCPP, Microsoft currently offers the following patent licenses with respect to its high-volume products:
For more information, contact the Microsoft Open Protocols Team.
Patent Lists
To assist you in determining whether a patent license may be beneficial for you, Microsoft provides the following lists of protocols that are covered by one or more Microsoft patents or patent applications. We will make this list available once for each release of a high-volume product that includes Open Protocols. To receive a patent map showing the specific patents on these protocols, please send an e-mail message to the Open Protocols Team.
Patent Pledges
- Patent List Pledge: Microsoft will not assert patents on any Open Protocol unless those patents appear on that list described above.
- Open Source Compatibility: Microsoft will make a separate covenant not to sue open source developers for development and non-commercial distribution of implementations of certain Open Protocols.
