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Microsoft, once a staunch opponent of open source technology, joins the Open Invention Network consortium, created to protect open source technologies against patent prosecution.
In addition, the tech giant announced Wednesday that it would bring more than 60,000 patents to Open Invention Network. It should be noted that group affiliates grant reciprocal licenses to prevent future lawsuits in which companies may claim that another company's technology is infringing their own patents.
Among the group's member companies are Google (goog), Linux specialist Red Hat (rht), IBM (ibm) and Toyota.
The ISO group, created in 2005 to protect developers of the open source Linux operating system from prosecution, now covers a wider range of open source technologies. Developers and businesses can access free and open source technology for free, unlike proprietary software such as Microsoft's Windows operating system (msft).
"We know that Microsoft's decision to join ISO may seem surprising to some; It's no secret that there has been friction in the past between Microsoft and the open source community on the patent issue, "wrote the Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Microsoft, Erich Andersen, in a blog post.
For years, Microsoft has fought legal battles against companies working on open source technologies such as Linux and Google's Android operating system, alleging that open source technology was violating its own patents.
But as open source technologies have become increasingly popular with developers and businesses in recent years, Microsoft has changed its attitude toward the technology it once considered a major threat to its business. As the company devoted more resources to its Azure cloud service, it was increasingly interested in open source technologies to enable developers to build applications on Azure.
One of Microsoft's first major steps toward appeasing the free software community took place in 2014, when the company announced that it would open its .NET development infrastructure. Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, said Fortune in 2016, "developers are now using a lot of open source tools and technologies, and for now I think that's why Microsoft had to open .NET source code and why it adopts more open source in general.
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The latest big open source game from Microsoft is its decision to acquire GitHub, a friendly, open source service that allows developers to store their software code for $ 7.5 billion.
"By participating in ISO, Microsoft is explicitly recognizing the importance of open source software for future growth," said OIN CEO Keith Bergelt.
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