About a month ago, Microsoft’s general counsel and executive vice president Brad Smith made a pledge to publish the details of each and everyone one of the patents held by the company, so that anyone could research them online. Today, the company has fulfilled that promise, with the release of its new Patent Tracker Tool online.

Writing in a blog post on Technet earlier today, Smith cites Microsoft’s belief in patent transparency as the reason behind the move:

“Transparency around patent ownership will help prevent gamesmanship by companies that seek to lie in wait and “hold up” companies rather than enable a well-functioning secondary market.”

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Microsoft’s announcement comes just one day after Google made its own patent transparency move, coming out and promising that it wouldn’t sue any open-source developers or users on specified patents it holds, so long as they don’t sue Google for anything first.

Microsoft first announced its plans last February, promising to have its patent tracker tool ready to go by April 1 of this year, and so the announcement has actually come a couple of days early. Using the new tool, it’s possible to track all 40,000 or so patents held by Microsoft or one of its subsidiaries.

According to the new site:

“Microsoft is committed to responsible intellectual property management, including the creation of a healthy patent ecosystem around the world that promotes and encourages innovation. One component of a well-functioning patent system is clarity around what entity is the real party in interest for a particular patent. Increased transparency around ownership reduces the likelihood of opportunistic behavior and gamesmanship by patent holders and helps facilitate licensing.”

We should point out that Microsoft’s move is slightly different to what Google, and previously, Twitter has done. It isn’t committing to the same policy of openness as its rivals, but it does at least appear to be interested in promoting a bit more ‘civility’ within the patent landscape, which is a step in the right direction if nothing else.