Microsoft on the Issues

Improving transparency by ending anonymous patents

Jeffrey Meisner — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:15:00 GMT

Posted by Horacio Gutierrez
Deputy General Counsel & Corporate Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft

Recording ownership in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s assignment database is at present voluntary, with the result that records of patent ownership are often inaccurate and incomplete.

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Which state will be next to recognize computer science as a math or science credit in high school?

Jeffrey Meisner — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:50:00 GMT

Posted by Brad Smith
General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft

Yesterday, Washington took an important step in helping create new opportunities for our state’s children and our economy.

Brad Smith, General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Legal & Corporate Affairs at Microsoft and several students look on as Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee signs SHB1472 into law at Rainier Beach High School in Seattle.

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Minding the privacy gap

Jeffrey Meisner — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Posted by Mary Snapp
Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Microsoft’s new consumer privacy campaign and a quiz we developed – Your Privacy Type (YPT) – for consumers to gauge where they fall on the privacy continuum.

Thus far, the campaign and the YPT quiz have generated discussion and positive reactions in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Germany. We’re also seeing strong engagement with consumers on our website, which has been localized to German and now French as our advertising expands into France this week.

As part of the launch of the Your Privacy Type quiz, we surveyed 4,000 consumers in the U.K., France, U.S. and Germany (1,000 in each market) to gain a quantitative perspective of how they felt about privacy issues (using the same questions as our quiz online). We looked at the privacy behaviors and “privacy type” for each market and found some interesting results.

Eighty-four percent of those polled expressed concern about their online privacy. That particular finding was not surprising by itself, but interesting when compared to only 47 percent of the respondents who were actively taking measures to protect their privacy online. There’s a wide gap between interest and action.

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Microsoft announces new TV white spaces project to connect students in Tanzania

Jeffrey Meisner — Wed, 08 May 2013 07:01:00 GMT

Posted by Paul Garnett
Director, Technology Policy Group, Microsoft

Today at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, Microsoft announced a new pilot project in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

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Harnessing the power of apps for social and economic development across Asia and the Pacific

Jeffrey Meisner — Sat, 04 May 2013 03:30:00 GMT

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Bindu Lohani, Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, Asian Development Bank.

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in how we think about solutions for global societal challenges. Take the apps revolution for a start. Apps are driving change at an incredibly fast pace - connecting millions more people to data and services.

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Toward building consumer trust and a Do Not Track solution

Jeffrey Meisner — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:46:00 GMT

Posted by Brendon Lynch
Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft

Last week, we launched a consumer privacy awareness campaign to educate people about the tools and technologies Microsoft provides to help protect their personal information online.

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Microsoft and Politico host conversation on technology and health care of the future

Jeffrey Meisner — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:32:00 GMT

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, Microsoft on the Issues

On Tuesday, Microsoft and Politico hosted an interactive conversation addressing how innovative technologies are changing the policy and practice of health care. The discussion addressed the role technology can play in improving and changing health care, focusing on topics such as mobile medical apps and doctor-patient communication.

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U.S. issues annual Special 301 report on intellectual property rights

Jeffrey Meisner — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:19:00 GMT

Posted by Fred Humphries
Vice President, U.S. Government Affairs, Microsoft

Today, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued its “Special 301” report. This annual review of the state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement around the world identifies both the progress and continuing challenges that exist with respect to IPR enforcement. In an unusual step, the Administration today designated Ukraine as a “priority foreign country” (PFC) which begins an investigation leading to possible sanctions consistent with trade statutes. Software piracy was identified as one of three issues that led to the designation.

PFC designation is a serious tool in IPR enforcement.

IPR protection is one of the key drivers of sustained economic growth and innovation, and Ukraine has enormous potential in this area. In July last year, Team quadSquad from Ukraine won the Imagine Cup, a world-wide competition sponsored by Microsoft for its winning project, Enable Talk, a software solution that transforms sign language into a form of verbal communication through sensor-equipped gloves and a mobile device. Without question, Ukraine has some of the best and brightest engineers and software developers who would benefit from a robust IPR regime.

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Help us protect children

Jeffrey Meisner — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT

Posted by Brad Smith
General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft

The NASDAQ Stock Market dedicated yesterday’s market close to Kids In Need of Defense.

Founded by Microsoft and Angelina Jolie in 2008, KIND’s mission is simple – ensuring due process and legal representation for unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings in the United States. The opportunity to ring the Closing Bell provided a moment in time to highlight the urgent need for more pro bono attorneys.

Every year, thousands of lone children arrive in the United States, seeking safety and stability. They have fled their homes, countries and persecution, as well as severe abuse, abandonment, violent conflict, desperate poverty, forced marriage and female genital mutilation, among other hardships.

Many are teenagers. Some are as young as two years old. Many have suffered in ways that no child should ever have to.

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Microsoft inventors share award-winning ideas on World IP Day

Jeffrey Meisner — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:00:00 GMT

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 broader industry, where they are often built upon and grow into even more advanced solutions. Every year on April 26, the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) invites inventors large and small to take some time to remind ourselves what thinkers and doers can do when they put their minds to it.

Today, Microsoft marks World IP Day by sharing a closer look at two of our inventors who push the envelope with creative inventions. Asta Roseway from Microsoft Research, known for her work on the “Printing Dress”, shares the background of her first patent for a cinematic gaming invention “Spectator Experience,” and Ali Khan from Server and Tools describes the work behind his patent to improve wireless data transmission.

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