(Cloud) Tip of the Day: Azure IP Advantage

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Today’s Tip…

Protecting your innovation in the cloud: Reduce risk, innovate with confidence, and operate with freedom in the cloud. Azure IP Advantage provides the industry’s most comprehensive protection against intellectual property (IP) risks.

  • Best-in-industry intellectual property protection
    • Across the globe, the shift to cloud computing is accelerating, impacting every industry and every person. As our customers move to the cloud, business risks are changing. One issue is the increased IP infringement risk associated with delivering software-based products and services in the cloud. To support our customers and to foster a community and business environment that values and protects innovation in the cloud, we created the Microsoft Azure IP Advantage program.
  • Build confidently with uncapped indemnification
    • Build on Azure knowing that you have best-in-industry uncapped defense and indemnification coverage that extends to any open source technology that powers Microsoft Azure services, such as Hadoop used for Azure HDInsight. You don’t have to do or pay anything extra, just use Azure knowing that our indemnification coverage is available if you ever need it.
  • Deter and defend lawsuits with patent pick
    • Defend against patent lawsuits targeting your innovation with access to a large patent portfolio. You become eligible for this benefit simply by using Azure on a regular basis. If sued, eligible Azure customers can acquire one of 10,000 patents that Microsoft will make available to help counter assert against an aggressor (7,500 available now, 2,500 more coming soon). To learn more about how to pick a patent, please read the FAQ.
  • Get broad protection with a springing license
    • We are pledging to Azure customers that if we transfer patents to non-practicing entities (NPEs), these patents cannot be asserted against them in the future. Non-practicing entities are companies that primarily use patents for revenue generation. While Microsoft doesn’t have a general practice of transferring our patents to NPEs, if it were ever to occur, we offer a springing license to all eligible Azure customers.