Transparency campaign aimed at thwarting patent trolls
-Website lists about 40,000 Microsoft patents world-wide
-Not all technology companies agree transparency needed
Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT ) on Thursday launched a website listing all the patents it holds in the U.S. and abroad, in a campaign for more patent transparency aimed at limiting patent warfare among tech companies.
The Redmond, Wash., software company unveiled a website called Patent Tracker that lists all Microsoft patents in a database available online or for download. More than 40,000 patents are listed on the website that are searchable by patent number, title, country of filing and whether the patent is held by Microsoft or one of its subsidiaries.
Microsoft pledged last month during an industry conference in Washington to make its patent catalog public. The move comes as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has considered drafting so-called “real party of interest” rules. The rules could make it more difficult for patent holders to conceal ownership and shuttle intellectual property between shell companies.
The ploy is often used by companies that buy patents with the intent of using them to sue manufacturers in the future. Microsoft is engaged in about 60 patent lawsuits with such secondary owners, say attorneys familiar with the company’s legal dealings.
Transparency will “help prevent gamesmanship by companies that seek to lie in wait and “hold up” companies rather than enable a well-functioning secondary market,” said Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, in a blog post announcing the website. He concluded the post asking other companies to “join us in making available information about which patents they own.”
Clouding ownership of a patent makes it difficult for technology companies to identify competing technology and seek a license. Obscuring ownership also makes it easier for companies to spring a patent suit on an unsuspecting manufacturer, a practice that has earned the name “patent trolls” for companies that use the tactic.
Microsoft’s announcement to publish its patent catalogue is an attempt to lead its technology peers toward greater transparency, but not all agree.
“I can see where identifying ownership can be helpful–not the biggest issue we are facing in patent reform,” said Washington patent attorney David Long.
Representatives of several tech companies said patents are published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and available on commercial search services.
A spokesman for Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) said the company wasn’t considering publishing its list of patents. A spokesman for Oracle Corp. (ORCL) said the same. Several other software and technology companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In January, David Kappos, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for IP, in remarks said more transparency was needed to get patents into the hands of companies that can invest in new products and create jobs.
Microsoft’s Patent Tracker is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/patents/default.aspx
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