Microsoft claimed a "patenting milestone" today after having its 5,000th application granted in the US.

Patent number 6,999,083 provides for technologies that allow people not just to play video games against each other online, but to join the game as a spectator from any location.

The patent, which covers technologies to be featured in Xbox 360 games, allows consumers to tune into a video game much as they would a sporting event.

"The 5,000th patent is a marker of the progress we have made in the past few years," said Brad Smith, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Microsoft.

"Through patents, we are able to license our technologies widely to others in the industry."

Microsoft said that it has used its expanding intellectual property portfolio to launch development-seeding licensing initiatives, including IP Ventures, a programme dedicated to bringing technology to emerging businesses.

The software giant has also entered into licensing agreements with a wide variety of companies including Autodesk, Inrix, Motorola, Palm, SAP, Softedge-Systems, Sony Ericsson, Sun Microsystems, Symbian and Turbolinux.

Microsoft claimed that it will "continue to strive toward its goal of filing for 3,000 patents per year".

The National Research Council of the National Academies noted that this level is consistent with the average for IT companies in filing about two patents for every $1m spent on research and development.

Since its public commitment to patent and intellectual property licensing in December 2003, Microsoft has been playing catch up with other long-time patent licensors such as IBM, which boasts a portfolio of over 25,000 US patents.

The most recent patent scorecard published by IpIQ (formerly published by Technology Review), ranks Microsoft in the top 10.