Microsoft's antitrust settlement with the US Justice Department in November 2001 required it to disclose software code used by Windows, to help rivals make their products interoperable with its dominant operating system.
But when it first made the code available, it did so on terms that Sun Microsystems and others deemed unreasonable. The Justice Department intervened and the terms were eased. However, by October this year, only nine companies had signed up, prompting further questions.
Nevertheless, a shift had begun. It was followed by an announcement that the XML (extensible markup language) based file formats for the most recent Office suite would be available for royalty-free licensing from 5th December. Today's announcement opens the door still further.
According to Microsoft, the company has always been licensing its IP on a limited, case-by-case basis and had established cross-licensing agreements with a variety of industry leaders. The new policy will expand these cross-licensing initiatives, and allow smaller companies to obtain licenses too.
The new policy will follow industry norms, says Microsoft, by offering licenses on both royalty-free and royalty-bearing terms. In particular, the academic community will be permitted to obtain royalty-free licenses for the purposes of non-commercial research and development.
Microsoft also announced the availability on "fair and reasonable terms" of two specific licenses: one for ClearType technology and the other for Microsoft's FAT file system. Both offerings have already been adopted by at least one licensee, ClearType by font publisher Agfa Monotype, and the FAT file system by Lexar Media.
"Many in the industry have been asking Microsoft to clarify our licensing policy and to provide broader availability to our IP portfolio," said Brad Smith, general counsel and senior vice president at Microsoft. "The changes we are announcing today will promote greater collaboration across our industry, and we look forward to partnering with a broad range of companies."
Microsoft is still awaiting the results of a long-running antitrust investigation by the European Commission, which held a three-day hearing in November at which Microsoft put forward its responses to the Commission's Statement of Objections. This Statement had indicated that Microsoft would be found in breach of EU law.
Brad Smith told CNET News.com that this had not been a consideration, saying "I really don't see this announcement as relating directly to the issues in Brussels".