Microsoft removes more legal obstacles
Published: 13 Apr 2004 11:05 BST
With the settlement on Monday of its long-simmering patent dispute with InterTrust Technologies, Microsoft has cleared away legal concerns that have been looming over many of its most important plans.
Digital rights management company InterTrust had contended that virtually all of Microsoft's products, ranging from core Windows, Office and Outlook features to the .Net platform and the Xbox game console, violated the smaller company's patent rights.
At the core of these broad-ranging claims were ways of protecting information against unauthorised use, even if it is moved between computers or across a network like the Internet. As Microsoft aims to become the standard infrastructure for digital audio and video and Web services, this roving content protection will become increasingly significant.
"Microsoft really wants to make sure that Windows is the best platform for secure digital media," said Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff. "This allows Microsoft to continue forward with some of its digital rights management initiatives."
The $440m (£241m) settlement, which will give Microsoft a perpetual licence to InterTrust's patents, appears to be part of a larger drive to clear up the software company's intellectual property landscape in advance of releasing its newest version of Windows, dubbed Longhorn.
Microsoft has already put a strong emphasis on protecting data. Features in the new Microsoft Office suite prevent unauthorised access to or forwarding of Word documents or email, for example. The company also has focused on building and marketing its Windows Media digital rights management tools, which many digital music and video companies have adopted to distribute songs or video programming online.
But these security technologies are collectively expected to be more deeply integrated with Longhorn, alongside related hardware-based security measures aimed at protecting computers from hackers. Developers and hardware partners will ultimately want assurances that critical security technologies are not still subject to litigation when they release support for these tools, analysts said.
In an interview on Monday, Microsoft acknowledged that InterTrust's patents had come to be key to the company's future development plans.
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