Microsoft on Thursday made good on its pledge to put its patent interests online for download.
In a blog post, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said his company believed that transparency about patent ownership was critical. Microsoft's move revolves around creating a searchable database to indicate patents where Microsoft is a party in interest.
The Microsoft Patent Tracker lists all patents the software giant is involved with. There's an online list and a CSV file to download into a spreadsheet.
Smith and Microsoft last month at a Capitol Hill hearing made the case is that every company that owns a U.S. patent should be more transparent. More transparency would help with licensing and theoretically curb patent troll lawsuits.
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