Summary of 8 July 2002 Patent Policy Working Group Teleconference

Hello,

   Twenty five people attended the 8 July 2002 Patent Policy Working
   Group (PPWG) teleconference.

   One person said the "Core/Extensions" RAND exception proposal has
   no value. One person felt it is a middle ground, and that not
   adopting it would lead to reduced participation in W3C by patent
   holders.

   Several people were concerned that non-free intellectual property
   might surface in a Working Group that had been licensed
   royalty-free (RF), resulting in some Members offering free licenses
   under their RF commitment, and others charging fees. It was
   suggested that might be an opportunity for other members to
   reconsider their RF commitment.

   There was review of the definitions of essential claims, normative,
   mandatory, and optional.

   One person was concerned that open source developers will implement
   the free parts of specs, and that other developers will advertise
   that they implement the whole spec. Someone pointed out that
   creating a better product is what matters.

   Another person thought that W3C should not place its imprimatur on
   standards embedding royalty-bearing patents, and that competition
   should be based on technical merit of products rather than upon a
   competitor's effectiveness in placing legal restraints upon the
   other competitors.

   The group meets next face to face from 15-17 July.

Best wishes,
-- 
Susan Lesch           http://www.w3.org/People/Lesch/
mailto:lesch@w3.org               tel:+1.858.483.4819
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)    http://www.w3.org/

Received on Thursday, 11 July 2002 09:23:23 UTC