SINGAPORE: Microsoft on Thursday (Apr 5) introduced a new global intellectual property (IP) initiative aimed at, among other things, reducing the confusion over who owns what when collaborating with partners to develop new products and services using Redmond’s platforms and tools.
The Shared Innovation Initiative was unveiled by Microsoft president Brad Smith here, given that Singapore is a place where talent come together and create new things that have a “global impact”.
Mr Smith shared that the initiative came about because when he visited the company’s various international outposts last September, one of the first points raised by senior leadership would be how companies are asking for more clarity on shared innovations.
He then brought this back to its Redmond headquarters and discussed with the team how to address this particular issue, and the new global IP strategy was thus birthed.
In a separate blog post released on Thursday, the president said every company today is becoming in part a software company - whether they are auto manufacturers, retailers, healthcare providers or financial services firms - as they collaborate with Microsoft to create new digital products and services that run on its platforms.
“As we look to the future, advancements and the adoption of cloud services, data analytics and artificial intelligence will only accelerate this phenomenon,” he said.
AdvertisementAdvertisement“The world is eating software,” Mr Smith further added during the press briefing.
BREAKING NEW GROUND
The executive said the new global IP strategy will cover seven areas:
- Respect for ownership of existing technology
- Assuring customer ownership of new patents and design rights
- Support for open source
- Licensing new IP rights back to Microsoft
- Software portability
- Transparency and clarity
- Learning and improvement
Of these, Mr Smith pointed out that allowing customers to own the patents and design rights of any new product or service derived from the collaboration is the “most innovative” part.
He explained that Microsoft will help the company in the patent application of the shared work, but the partner will have to decide which market it intends to file for patents and pay for the application.
“So this is one area where we are ... going somewhere that no other tech company has yet been prepared to go,” Mr Smith said.
This was reiterated by Mr Dane Anderson, Vice President of Research at Forrester Asia-Pacific, who was also at the press briefing.
He said he was struck by how Microsoft is trying to address a growing issue around joint innovations in industries such as banking, for example, where banks are developing tools based on tech like artificial intelligence to improve their processes.
He also pointed out that for contracts on cloud computing services, there are “lots of ambiguity” right now, and this initiative aims to provide more clarity.
“Where there is ambiguity, there are big risks (for companies),” Mr Anderson pointed out.
EARLY DAYS YET
In turn, the tech giant will receive a license of this new IP, “but the license will be limited to improving (its) platform technologies”.
These include existing and future versions of Azure, Azure Services (for example cognitive services), Office 365, Windows, Dynamics, Enterprise Mobility Solution, Cortana, Bing, Xbox, Xbox Live, HoloLens, System of Intelligence, and code and tools developed by or on behalf of Microsoft that are intended to provide technical assistance to customers in their respective businesses, the blog post said.
Asked how Microsoft intends to limit the use of new innovations to its own platforms, and not develop products or services that will compete with its collaborators, Mr Smith cited the auto manufacturing industry as an example when he said the company does not see car-making in its future roadmap.
However, it could use certain patents by carmakers to improve the technologies for Azure or Office 365, the president explained, adding there will also be a layer of corporate governance that will go towards addressing potential concerns from partners.
Forrestor’s Anderson noted it was good that Microsoft is “ringfencing” the use of such licenses to its own platforms.
He did agree that it is early days, and remains to be seen how Redmond will apply this to future projects.
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