Amid an increase in the number of cloud-based intellectual property lawsuits, Microsoft Corp. has said it’s willing to shield its Azure cloud customers from patent litigation.

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said in a blog post that there has been a 22 percent increase in the number of cloud-based IP lawsuits in the U.S. in the last five years, citing research by the Boston Consulting Group. In the same period, non-practicing entities, often called “patent trolls” because they don’t actually bring any products to market using the patents to hold, have increased their cloud-related patents by 35 percent.

Microsoft is worried that it’s customers might be put off from using its Azure cloud services due to the threat of patent litigation, so the company is now offering the Azure IP Advantage program to protect them. The program provides customers with uncapped indemnification coverage encompassing a range of open-source technologies used by Azure. For example, Microsoft uses the open-source Apache Hadoop framework to power its Azure HD Insight big data processing system. In addition, Microsoft is using some of its own patents to provide customers with another safeguard, via a new service called Patent Pick.

“We will make 10,000 Microsoft patents available to customers that use Azure services for the sole purpose of enabling them to better defend themselves against patent lawsuits against their services that run on top of Azure,” Smith wrote. “These patents are broadly representative of Microsoft’s overall patent portfolio and are the result of years of cutting-edge innovation by our best engineers around the world.”

Of those 10,000 patents, Microsoft has made 7,500 available right now, with the remainder to be offered soon. The 10,000 patents equate to around a sixth of the 60,000 odd patents the company currently holds.

In addition, Microsoft has created something called Springing Licenses, which are designed to protect customers when its patents are transferred to non-practicing entities. The licenses will ensure that those patents can never be asserted against Microsoft Azure customers if they are transferred. In his post, Smith pointed out that although Microsoft rarely transfers any of its patents, it’s an extra form of protection that the company’s customers value.

Mattel Inc., a maker of children’s toys, said the new protections should help to ensure the company avoids any legal issues. “Mattel is a place of invention and imagination, and we aspire to spend as much of our time and energy creating as possible,” said Geoff Walker, executive vice president and chief strategic technology officer at Mattel. “Azure IP Advantage will let us focus on innovating and transforming our business, not fighting patent lawsuits.”

Azure IP Advantage is being offered as a feature with Azure subscriptions. Microsoft said the patent defense and indemnity components come as standard, while the Springing License will be automatically applied when customers meet its requirements.

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