RE: Microsoft patent on typing Webdav properties

There used to be a grace period of 1 year after public disclosure for
filing.

Don't know if it is still true, though I don't think the patent procedures
have been changed in that area unless it is part of international
normalization.

The big deal is going to be with regard to the IETF rules.  I don't know
when they were updated to require mandatory licensing of anything disclosed
or proposed for an IETF standard.

-- Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-dist-auth-request@w3.org
[mailto:w3c-dist-auth-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Jim Whitehead
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 18:01
To: Chris Knight
Cc: w3c-dist-auth@w3.org
Subject: RE: Microsoft patent on typing Webdav properties



Chris Knight writes:
> I assume there is prior art to these? It's a shame that it got through
> the patent review process. (Not a suprise, however.)

IANAL.

Many of the claims in the Microsoft patents are very specific to HTTP,
specific methods, and use of XML. There is clear prior art for ACL (easy to
find drafts in Google that predate the application). DASL is a bit tricky --
the first draft did go our before the application, but only by a week.
Still, we can point to email messages that clearly indicate that people on
the patent application were working on the DASL specification. I'm also not
sure whether revealing the idea of SQL wrapped in XML over HTTP at the
public, open DASL working meetings also constitutes disclosure of the
invention.

- Jim

Received on Thursday, 20 February 2003 03:29:47 UTC