On precisely the same that day that Google unveiled its open source pledge, donating ten patents for free open source use, Microsoft unveiled its new Patent Tracker, a tool to reveal every single patent that the company owns, has acquired, or owned historically.

Do you believe in coincidences?

The genesis of Microsoft’s patent tracker is the company’s desire to improve the patent system without completely destroying it, a Microsoft lawyer that I spoke to today told me. Three problems the company sees in the current system are knowing who actually owns or controls a patent, litigation abuse by non-practicing entities (lawyerese for patent trolls who don’t actually make anything with the patents they control), and poor patent quality.

The new tracker is designed to fix the first problem, while making patent abuse more difficult. And it’s built around Microsoft’s goal of working within the patent system, while seeking to improve it. As Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith said, roughly translated: “Fix what’s broken, not break what’s working.”

The two initiatives show a different approach to patents, at least on the surface, from the two software giants.

Google’s initiative today showcases a kind of patents-are-a-necessary-evil mentality. Google doesn’t want to be left defenseless in a patent nuclear war, so it has loaded up on patents by acquiring Motorola, by buying them from IBM, and by joining a consortium to purchase them from a bankrupt Kodak. But it also wants to be seen as a friend of open systems and open software — after all, Android is built on an open-source foundation — so donating patents to open source is kind of motherhood and apple pie.

via Microsoft’s new ‘Patent Tracker’ shows us every one of the 40,786 patents it owns or controls | VentureBeat.