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Microsoft has been a member of the Lot Network since Thursday. This is an initiative of the tech industry that tries to combat patent trolls. Patent trolls are bad for innovation within the sector, even though the sector is so dependent on it.

The Lot Network has been in existence for some time and has more than three hundred members. It concerns large as well as small companies. The best-known member companies include Amazon, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Lenovo and Netflix. Together, they agree that when they sell a patent to a company that is known to file lawsuits about it, all members of the Lot Network get a free license to use the patent.

Rules of the Lot Network

Under the rules of the Lot Network, members can license, sell and do nothing with their patents to each other. However, if a member sells a patent to a troll company, the other members of the Lot Network get a free license to the patent.

Patent roles are companies that buy patents and then take legal action against companies that use them. The vast majority of Troll companies do not use patents to make products or to help build a business. They only use them to make money through lawsuits.

Known problem

Microsoft knows the problems of this, said Vice President Erich Anderson in a blog. We have seen hundreds of useless patent cases in recent years and want to do more to help others deal with this problem. In most cases, the opportunists behind the allegations are not the ones behind the research and development behind the patents. Many people do not even understand the technical concepts described in it.

Despite the fact that Microsoft becomes a member of the Lot Network relatively late in the day, it has been fighting against troll companies for some time now. For example, Microsoft has set up the Azure IP Advantage program, which protects customers of its cloud from trolls. More than 10,000 patents have been made available within the IP Advantage program to prevent litigation. Microsoft also has Springing Licenses, which ensure that if Microsoft sells a patent, its customers still have a license on it.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.