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Posted by Horacio Gutierrez Deputy General Counsel & Corporate Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft About a year ago my wife and I bought a house. Amidst all of the paperwork, loan disclosures and the like, one thing we received was a title report, confirming that the seller...

Posted by Jeff Meisner Editor, Microsoft on the Issues It’s easy for us to overlook the role intellectual property can play in improving lives when it contributes to the arts and technology. Patents not only protect new ideas, but also provide an avenue for technology advancements to reach the...

Posted by Horacio Gutierrez Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Today, we’re pleased to announce that ZTE, one of the world’s largest smartphone companies, has joined a long list of companies that have signed patent license agreements...

Posted by Brad Smith General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Last month at an event on Capitol Hill, Microsoft pledged to put information on the Web that would enable anyone to determine for which patents we are the real party in interest. As I mentioned...

Posted by Horacio Gutierrez Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft Last week, BSA│The Software Alliance and the National Association of Manufacturers held an event on Capitol Hill to talk about the benefits of software patents and what steps could be taken to improve the...

Posted by Dave Heiner Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Patent and Trademark Office issued an important policy statement on standard essential patents. We welcome the statement as a significant step forward in ensuring the...

Posted by Jeff Meisner Editor, Microsoft on the Issues Microsoft and Hoeft & Wessel AG have signed a patent licensing agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for Hoeft &Wessel devices running the Android platform. Hoeft & Wessel manufactures handheld...

Posted by Bart Eppenauer Chief Patent Counsel, Microsoft Each year, the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation presents its Annual National Inventor of the Year Award to individuals that contribute significantly to the practice of Intellectual Property. The Award recognizes “Outstanding...

Posted by Jeff Meisner Editor, Microsoft on the Issues Earlier today, Microsoft announced that it signed patent licensing agreements for the use of the latest Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) with five companies, spanning industries including high-end camcorders, digital cameras and Android...

Posted by Jeff Meisner Editor, Microsoft on the Issues In this edition of The Week in Tech Policy, we have stories on the Apple v. Samsung case, Washington Monthly’s 2012 list of top universities, mobile phone text donations and more. Federal Aviation Administration to consider overhaul of...

Posted by Jeff Meisner Editor, Microsoft on the Issues This edition of The Week in Tech Policy has stories on higher education, online privacy guidelines for children, wireless spectrum and more. Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s assess higher education’s financial health. Two major...

Posted by Brad Smith & Horacio Gutierrez Executive Vice President & General Counsel and Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft July 18 marked the effective date for the International Trade Commission’s order excluding from the U.S. market Motorola’s Android...

Posted by Jeff Meisner Editor, Microsoft on the Issues Welcome to The Week in Tech Policy, a new weekly roundup that highlights interesting news in key policy that affect the tech industry. Technology is an ever-evolving business, and each week there are plenty of interesting policy-related developments...

Posted by David Howard Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft Today’s FTC statement filed in the International Trade Commission adds to the growing chorus of regulators and other government officials around the world who agree that injunctions and exclusion orders based...

Posted by Bart Eppenauer & Jason Albert Chief Patent Counsel & Associate General Counsel for IP Policy & Strategy, Microsoft Today is World IP Day , a day to celebrate how intellectual property fosters and encourages innovation and creativity. In honor of this day and the 2012 theme of...

Posted by Jason Albert Associate General Counsel for IP Policy & Strategy, Microsoft Today, Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator , together with John Bryson, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and David Kappos, the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office...

Posted by Dave Heiner Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Corporate Standards & Antitrust Group, Microsoft Earlier today, Microsoft filed a formal competition law complaint with the European Commission (EC) against Motorola Mobility and Google. We have taken this step because Motorola...

Posted by Horacio Gutierrez Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft Earlier this week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released information on its Proposed Patent Fee Schedule . In announcing the Proposed Fee Schedule, Director David Kappos noted that the key principles...

Posted by Fred Humphries Vice President, U.S. Government Affairs, Microsoft Earlier today, Microsoft and Politico hosted a conversation with White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra on the future of technology at Microsoft’s Innovation & Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The event...

Posted by Brad Smith and Horacio Gutierrez Executive Vice President and General Counsel & Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft Today, Microsoft announced its tenth license agreement providing coverage under our patent portfolio for Android mobile phones and tablets. Today...

Posted by Brad Smith & Horacio Gutierrez General Counsel & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft Today, Microsoft announced a patent cross-licensing agreement with Samsung that will provide coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for Samsung’s mobile phones and tablets. The agreement...

Posted by Horacio Gutierrez Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft For six years, Congress has worked to shape a bill to modernize the U.S. patent system. Throughout this process, Microsoft has been a strong supporter of sensible reforms. Today, the Senate takes up HR 1249...

Posted by Brad Smith General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 – the PROTECT IP Act. We support...

Editor's Note: This blog post was co-authored by Bruce Sewell, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Apple; Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Cisco; Ted Ullyot, Vice President and General Counsel, Facebook; and Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft...

Posted by Horacio Gutierrez Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel Reform of the U.S. patent system continues to make significant strides, with the introduction of the “America Invents Act of 2011” ( HR 1249 ) by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX). ...