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RE: Re: W3C ridiculous new policy on patents

• From: Jeff Lowery <jlowery@s...>
• To: 'Amy Lewis' <amyzing@t...>,"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 17:10:37 -0700

The concept of patenting software is sound, but the mechanism is prima facie
broken. I think this makes your support of RAND untenable, Len. If all
patents were good ones, your arguments would be sound, but bad ones backed
up by an inefficient and expensive legal process will shut out viable open
technologies for no good reason.

Can W3C avoid being hobbled by excluding patents? No. But it's not the
exclusion of patents that's the problem here; its the threat of mandated
royalties on W3C technology by those who really have not contributed to the
advancement of the art.

I'm afraid the legal profession in this regard is becoming like a
Mesoamerican priesthood, contributing nothing but exacting a debilitating
toll on the populace nonetheless. The only those at the top of the heap are
immune.

I'm not against patents, I'm just against bad ones that can't be challenged
without incurring terrible expense. I'm not against RAND, once the bad
patents are winnowed out. 

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