"list of the protocols that are covered by patents"

Question

Hi, in the press release:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/apr08/04-08ProtocolPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

 

There is the statement:

"For those protocols that may be covered by a Microsoft patent, Microsoft will make available patent licenses on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, at low royalty rates. In addition, Microsoft will publish a list of the protocols that are covered by patents and will make available a list of the specific Microsoft patents and patent applications that cover each protocol."

 

My first question is, when will this list be available?

 

Secondly, if it can be answered now for the Office and Exchange protocols, what use of these protocols requires a license?  For example, will a license be required if the documentation is used to create a commercial application that reads and possibly creates messages/appointments on the Exchange store?

 

Thanks.

Answer 1

For your first question, the patent map details for Windows Protocols under MCPP and WSPP programs were posted on our Microsoft Protocols Programs website (http://www.microsoft.com/protocols) in late February, 2008 at the same time we published the Windows Protocols technical documentation online on MSDN.
- For MCPP protocols, the MCPP link is http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/intellectualproperty/protocols/mcpp.mspx#DocumentationAvailabilityandUpdates

- For WSPP protocols, the WSPP link is http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/intellectualproperty/protocols/wspp/wspp.mspx#DocumentationAvailabilityandUpdates

 

Preliminary protocol documentation for Office 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Exchange Server 2007 protocols was published last week, April 7, 2008 on MSDN.  Patent licenses and patent maps for these and other protocols in Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SQL Server 2008 will be available no later than the release of the final version of the documentation on MSDN, currently scheduled for June 2008.

 

For your second question, whether a particular implementation scenario will be covered by the patent license will depend on the protocols implemented and the patents that cover those protocols.  That information will be available in June, once the documentation has been finalized, and our licensing team will happy to work with you to answer this question at that point.