Grant of License issue

The current Grant Of License for Contributions under the W3C Software
License states the following:
[[
The Contributor vouches that she/he has all rights necessary to
contribute the Materials in a way that does not violate copyright,
patent, and trademark rights; contractual obligations, or libel
regulations.
]]
http://www.w3.org/2002/01/DOMConformanceTS-Process-20020115#ownership

Some companies are not willing to do a full patent search in their
portfolio before submitting tests to the W3C. This is perfectly
understandable when you see the costs of doing such a search. The
current word should imho relaxed a little bit or we'll run the risk of
excluding tests submission from some companies.
Here is a proposal to change the current wording:
[[
The Contributor states to the best of his/her knowledge that use of
his/her contribution would not infringe any of his/her patent rights or
third party patent rights.
]]

(The Contributor can be also a company, not only an individual. I think
the current wording takes this fact into account.)

Philippe

Received on Wednesday, 27 March 2002 11:17:05 UTC