Microsoft and Mixed Source Software

October 22, 2008

Last week, Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel for IP Licensing, Horacio Gutierrez, sat down for an interview with Infoworld. I found it to be a very straightforward and understandable description of the ways Microsoft continues to evolve its approach to intellectual property to meet customer needs.

First, Some History…

As Horacio pointed out in the article, December will mark the fifth year since Microsoft changed its patent licensing policy so that any third party, including competitors, could license any of our patents, on commercially reasonable terms. This was a significant shift at the time, as most companies view their IP portfolio as an asset to be protected. This change signaled that Microsoft would move forward by viewing its IP portfolio as an asset to help drive business objectives, including interoperability and collaboration in the industry.

What Does It Mean

First, I think it means that Microsoft continues to view its intellectual property in a progressive fashion. Times change, and so do we. I think that, as the IT industry is maturing, we will continue to see evolutions in business practices, much as we have over the last twenty years. The most important point that I found in the article was that the future is in mixed source, or put more simply, no single approach is a panacea. Purely ideological, hard-line approaches, whether open source or proprietary, don’t work in a world where innovators have to innovate, investors need to profit, employees need to eat and customer needs must be met. Microsoft’s commitment to mixed source is evident in the work we continue to do every day with developers, partners and customers. From collaboration with Novell, to joining the Apache foundation, and everything in between, we clearly see the value of mixed source, and with partnering in the IT community. Business has always been about flexibility, evolution and change in order to meet the demands of a complex, dynamic market. We do these things because they make good business sense.

I encourage you to read the article. Those who are inclined to find every statement from a Microsoft employee questionable probably won’t be swayed. But then, the market has moved past that kind of ideology anyway.

Posted in Uncategorized, Interoperability, Microsoft