A start-up started telling the world Monday about its idea for predicting traffic jams, even though it wasn"t the company that developed the technology.
Rather, the core advances that are launching Seattle area start-up Inrix came entirely from Microsoft"s research labs. Though other corporate research labs have for years spun out unneeded technologies to start-ups, the Inrix deal is the first time Microsoft has decided to license out its research know-how.
"We still hope the vast majority of Microsoft Research technology is going to end up in Microsoft products," said David Kaefer, director of business development in Microsoft"s intellectual-property group. "Sometimes they come up with great ideas that really aren"t part of our core business plans."