[Infowarrior] - Microsoft Makes Office 2007 Protocols Available

[Richard Forno]

Microsoft Makes Office 2007 Protocols Available

The documentation defines how high-volume Microsoft products communicate
with other Microsoft products.

Microsoft will make available the preliminary versions of technical
documentation for the protocols built into Microsoft Office 2007, SharePoint
Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007.

This documentation, which defines how these high-volume Microsoft products
communicate with some of its other products, is 14,000 pages and is in
addition to the 30,000 pages posted when the software giant first introduced
its new Interoperability Principles last month. They will be made available
April 8.

³There have been more than 100,000 downloads of the first 30,000-page
documentation set posted on MSDN [Microsoft Developer Network],² Tom
Robertson, Microsoft¹s general manager for Interoperability and Standards,
told eWEEK.

The preliminary versions of the new documentation, which will also be posted
to MSDN, contain the protocols between SharePoint Server 2007 and Office
client applications; SharePoint Server 2007 and other Microsoft server
products; Exchange Server 2007 and Outlook; and Office 2007 client
applications and other Microsoft server products.

While everyone will have access to this protocol documentation without
having to sign a license or pay a royalty or other fee, there is a catch:
Those protocols covered by a Microsoft patent will have to be licensed if
they will be commercially distributed.

However, the software company has pledged to make patent licenses available
on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and at low royalty rates,
Robertson said. 

Microsoft recently launched the Interoperability Forum. Click here to read
more.

In June, Microsoft will also publish a list of the protocols that are
covered by patents, and will make available a patent map containing a list
of the specific Microsoft patents and patent applications that cover each
protocol, when the final version of the protocols are available, Robertson
said.

The company will also release the final patent pricing and licensing terms
at that time. ³As we work over the coming months on feedback on the
protocols themselves, we are also going to be completing the patent map for
each of these protocols,² Robertson said.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Makes-Office-2007-Protocols-Avail
able/