SoftQuad Software's comments on the patent policy

SoftQuad Software appreciates the work and thought that obviously has gone into the draft
patent policy, and especially appreciates the chance to comment on it.

We believe that W3C patent and licensing policy should support the W3C mission of bringing
the Web to all. As a company that participated in the development of SGML, then HTML, then
XML and the related standards, we also believe that the policy should not discriminate
against the many people, companies, and organizations from many countries who donated
their intellectual property and their work over several years, without expecting licensing
fees.

Thus W3C should use every means in its power to ensure that all Recommendations are
royalty-free. There are several paths to this goal and further discussion of these
potential paths is needed. Until the various ramifications are thought through, it may be
appropriate for W3C to stop work on any specification where essential claims have been
made and the companies making those claims are not willing to agree to RF licensing.

regards,

Lauren

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Lauren Wood, Director of Product Technology and AC Rep., SoftQuad Software

Received on Thursday, 11 October 2001 18:56:02 UTC