The Microsoft Open Specification Promise (OSP) is a promise by Microsoft, published in September 2006, to not assert its patents, in certain conditions, against implementations of a certain list of specifications.
The OSP is not a license, but rather a covenant not to sue. It promises protection but does not grant any rights.
The OSP is limited to implementations to the extent that they conform to those specifications. This allows for conformance to be partial. So if an implementation follows the specification for some aspects, and deviates in other aspects, then the Covenant Not to Sue applies only to the implementation's aspects which follow the specification.
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Relations with free software and open source projects
The protections granted by the OSP are independent to the license of implementations. There is disagreement as to whether the conditions of the OSP can be fulfilled by free software and open source projects, and whether they thus gain any protection from the OSP.
An article in Cover Pages quotes Lawrence Rosen, an attorney and lecturer at Stanford Law School, as saying,
"I'm pleased that this OSP is compatible with free and open-source licenses."
Linux vendor Red Hat's stance, as communicated by lawyer Mark Webbink in 2006, is:
"Red Hat believes that the text of the OSP gives sufficient flexibility to implement the listed specifications in software licensed under free and open-source licenses. We commend Microsoft's efforts to reach out to representatives from the open source community and solicit their feedback on this text, and Microsoft's willingness to make modifications in response to our comments."
Standards lawyer Andy Updegrove said in 2006 the Open Specification Promise was
"what I consider to be a highly desirable tool for facilitating the implementation of open standards, in particular where those standards are of interest to the open source community."
However, the Software Freedom Law Center, a law firm for free software and open source software, has warned of problems with the OSP for use in free software and open source software projects. In a published analysis of the promise it states that
"...it permits implementation under free software licenses so long as the resulting code isn't used freely."
Licensed technologies
Technologies on which the Open Specification Promise applies are:
Web
OpenService Format Specification (a.o. Accelerator)
Web Slice Format Specification introduced with Internet Explorer 8
XML Search Suggestions Format Specification
Virtualization Specifications
Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Image Format Specification
Microsoft Application Virtualization File Format Specification v1
Hyper-V Functional Specification
Security
RFC 4406 – Sender ID: Authenticating E-Mail
RFC 4408 – Sender Policy Framework: Authorizing Use of Domains in "Mail From"
RFC 4407 – Purported Responsible Address in E-Mail Messages
RFC 4405 – SMTP Service Extension for Indicating the Responsible Submitter of an E-Mail Message
RFC 7208 – Sender Policy Framework (SPF) for Authorizing Use of Domains in Email
U-Prove Cryptographic Specification V1.0
U-Prove Technology Integration into the Identity Metasystem V1.0
Office file formats
Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas
Office Open XML 1.0 – Ecma-376
Office Open XML ISO/IEC 29500:2008
OpenDocument Format for Office Applications v1.0 OASIS
OpenDocument Format for Office Applications v1.0 ISO/IEC 26300:2006
OpenDocument Format for Office Applications v1.1 OASIS
Word 97-2007 Binary File Format (.doc) Specification
PowerPoint 97-2007 Binary File Format (.ppt) Specification
Excel 97-2007 Binary File Format (.xls) Specification
Excel 2007 Binary File Format (.xlsb) Specification
Office Drawing 97-2007 Binary Format Specification
[MS-DOC]: Word Binary File Format (.doc) Structure Specification
[MS-PPT]: PowerPoint Binary File Format (.ppt) Structure Specification
[MS-XLS]: Excel Binary File Format (.xls) Structure Specification
[MS-XLSB]: Excel Binary File Format (.xlsb) Structure Specification
[MS-ODRAW]: Office Drawing Binary File Format Structure Specification
[MS-CTDOC]: Word Custom Toolbar Binary File Format Structure Specification
Windows compound formats
[MS-CFB] Windows Compound Binary File Format Specification
Graphics formats
Windows Metafile Format (.wmf) Specification
Ink Serialized Format (ISF) Specification
JPEG XR (.jxr) Format
Microsoft computer languages
[MS-XAML]: XAML Object Mapping Specification 2006 (Draft v0.1)
[MS-XAML]: XAML Object Mapping Specification 2006 (v1.0)
[MS-WPFXV]: WPF XAML Vocabulary Specification 2006 (Draft v0.1)
[MS-WPFXV]: WPF XAML Vocabulary Specification 2006 (v1.0)
[MS-SLXV]: Silverlight XAML Vocabulary Specification 2008 (Draft v0.9)
Robotics
Decentralized Software Services Protocol – DSSP/1.0
Synchronization
FeedSync v1.0, v1.0.1
Windows Rally Technologies
Windows Connect Now – UFD and Windows Vista
Windows Connect Now – UFD for Windows XP
Published protocols
In Microsoft's list of covered protocols there are many third-party protocols which Microsoft did not create but for which they imply they have patents which are necessary for implementation: