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RE: New Patent Policy Draft

• To: "'Simon St.Laurent'" <simonstl@s...>, XML DEV <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: New Patent Policy Draft
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 11:42:11 -0600

This article indicates "RF only". If they haven't worked out the 
policy, they are back to square one.  It does not bode well 
for the W3C if this is not *clearly* enunciated.  This kind 
of waffling is a horrible portent.

From

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2105073,00.html

In a reference draft being published on Tuesday, the W3C has moved back to the "royalty free" standard. 

"The current practice is we set the goal of producing royalty free standards but it doesn't really have a mechanism for enforcing that," said Daniel J. Weitzner, chair of the patent policy working group at the W3C. "What we're proposing in this draft is to add a legally binding commitment on the part of anyone who participates in a standard that any patents they have will be available royalty free." 

The draft is not the final say on the matter. A "last call" draft will be published later this year, at which point the public and W3C members will submit comments. A final decision from the director of the W3C is hoped for by the end of the year, said W3C spokeswoman Janet Daly. 

And there are still some issues to be worked out, Weitzner said. 

"There is still an open question of what's going to happen in the case that we run into tech that's only available for a fee. That could happen regardless of what our policy is. We still have to sort out what happens in that exceptional case," he said"


From: Simon St.Laurent [mailto:simonstl@s...]

On Tue, 2002-02-26 at 09:39, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> Any lawyers out there able to decipher this document?   
> 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/patent-policy

I've given it a rough shot at:
http://xmlhack.com/read.php?item=1558

It seems to me like Royalty-Free is very strongly preferred, but they're
keeping their options open if absolutely necessary.  The "Exception
Handling" part is especially interesting.
 

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