Re: Preparing to launch the Forms Task Force ...

http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2007-March/ 
010129.html

dave
(hyatt@apple.com)

On Mar 14, 2007, at 2:16 PM, Laurens Holst wrote:

> James Graham schreef:
>>> This, to me, seems like the biggest issue.  The whole point of  
>>> the patent
>>> policy is to give reasonable assurance that the specification is  
>>> free of
>>> IP concerns.  Unless there is patent language that I missed,  
>>> subsuming the
>>> WHAT WG's HTML 5 spec would be opening up browser makers to be  
>>> blindsided
>>> at a later date.
>>
>> As far as I can tell the patent policy only provides the assurance  
>> that members of the working group or the organisation they  
>> represent do not have restrictive patents on the technologies  
>> needed to implement the HTML spec. It does not protect against  
>> patents on these technologies held by other parties. Therefore  
>> there is no significant IP protection afforded by avoiding the Web  
>> Apps spec as a starting point for the new HTML specification;  
>> implementors are immune to patent lawsuits from the same group of  
>> people.
>
> If I were to mention <canvas> on the WHATWG mailing list, and I had  
> developed a <canvas> plugin for a browser as a proof-of-concept, I  
> could file a patent for it, perhaps sell it to a few companies for  
> intranet applications, wait for massive browser adoption, and then  
> sue them all, with my plugin and original messages as proof that I  
> was indeed the inventor of the idea. There is big money there. With  
> the W3C patent policy, and original proposals by individuals/ 
> organisations covered under that policy, that can’t happen.
>
> That’s what seems the added value to me. You do not have to be a  
> major browser vendor in order to carry a browser-related patent.  
> Look at Eolas, whom nobody heard of until it was too late. Look at  
> GIF, or MP3, too.
>
>
> ~Grauw
>
> -- 
> Ushiko-san! Kimi wa doushite, Ushiko-san nan da!!
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Laurens Holst, student, university of Utrecht, the Netherlands.
> Website: www.grauw.nl. Backbase employee; www.backbase.com.
>
> <lholst.vcf>

Received on Wednesday, 14 March 2007 21:36:35 UTC