In making the move, the company hopes to spur development of new web services, as well as ease developer concerns.
The "Open Specification Promise" is essentially a promise to not take legal action against any developer, unless that developer takes or participates in legal action against Microsoft related to the patents included. It also means those using the specifications would not have to sign a licensing agreement.
Microsoft decided on this approach as it was the easiest method to allow developers to continue to develop Web services free of concerns of legal ramifications from the Redmond company. A developer has the choice of implementing all or some of the specifications within their applications.
