Office Open XML formats will be open

And by open I mean you won’t need a license to work with them and use them.

I still get folks asking me questions about the licensing of the Open XML formats from time to time, and it seems there is a lot of misinformation out there. It’s actually been well over 7 months since we made the move away from licensing the formats and instead just provided a general commitment to not enforce any IP behind the formats. The legal term for this new commitment is CNS (covenant not to sue). This allows anyone to develop against our formats without having to worry about patents, and this it’s irrevocable (meaning it can’t be changed in the future).