In a move that might surprise a few people, Microsoft announced yesterday that it’s joining Open Innovation Network (OIN) – an open source patent consortium – and making its entire portfolio of patents open source. Microsoft will add nearly 60,000 patents to OIN, vastly enlarging its existing pool of 1,300 global patents. In the past few years, the Redmond-based company made nearly $3.4 billion in royalties from its Android-related patents. This resulted in frequent clashes with the Android community and others but Microsoft is intent on leaving that behind. The company’s corporate VP Erich Anderson said in a blog: We know Microsoft’s decision…

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