W3C Patent Policy Comments

As an active World Wide Web developer, I believe that allowing patented technologies into open standards is a bad idea.  The Internet has progressed for many years without patented technologies in standards such as the ones that the W3C defines (HTML, SVG, CSS), and giving one business control over any standard will stifle development in that standard.  I would not want my job to become complicated by requiring me to license standards from corporations simply to post a Web page or place an image on a site.  This is quite contrary to what the Web was originally designed to do:  disseminate information.

Corporations are free to develop their own patented technologies and let them stand in the marketplace on their own; RealNetworks is such an example.  However, the openness and freeness of standards on the Internet is crucial to its survival.  If I had to pay for each time I wrote a Web page, I would not develop content for the Internet anymore, and many other people would do the same.

Thank you.