Comment on patent policy

Hello,

I would also like to register my unhappiness with the moves to allow 
royalty-bearing patents in W3C standards. I understand the need to 
ensure that patent holders declare their interests up-front, but I 
cannot see why this could not also be demanded without allowing 
royalty-bearing patents.

I can also see that such a scheme could potentially be used as a means 
for competitors to get inside information by forcing disclosure, but 
since the same rules would apply to everyone, I think such potential is 
very limited.

Alllowing patented systems to become W3C standards would inevitably mean 
the death of Open Source web projects. Maybe not today, maybe not 
tomorrow, but eventually patent holders would begin to demand royalties 
and/or simply deny access to Open Source projects.

Please do not allow the W3C to go down this road!

Regards
Simon Green

Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 16:49:15 UTC