Re: Patent Policy issues...

On 14 Mar 2012, at 8:03 AM, Arthur Barstow wrote:

> On 3/13/12 1:03 PM, ext Ian Jacobs wrote:
>> On 13 Mar 2012, at 10:19 AM, Carr, Wayne wrote:
>> 
>>>> Note, however, that if a CG report moves to the Rec track, then disclosure
>>>> obligations kick in as part of the W3C Patent Policy.
>>> The disclosure obligation if the CG spec moves into a WG is not for the same people as those who are in the CG.  Disclosure for a TR is an obligation only for W3C members.  CG members don't have to be W3C members.
>> That is correct.
>> 
>>> Disclosure based only on actual personal knowledge isn't much of a burden.  You either personally know or you don't.  You don't have to do any search.  You just have to disclose if you yourself already know.
>> While what you say is correct, I have been told by others that the disclosure obligation is a burden for people to join a group. One piece of rationale is that if people have a disclosure obligation and fail to disclose (for whatever reason) it is problematic in court. This is an area where I relied on input from lawyers as I do not have direct experience with this.
> 
> If you can provide a link to those discussions, I would appreciate it.

Here's a summary of some discussion:
 https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/member-psig/2011JanMar/0232.html

I can probably dig up more, but I am sure I had other discussions that were not archived.

Of course, if experience suggests a disclosure obligation is necessary for people to participate, we can revisit that choice. 

Ian

--
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)    http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
Tel:                                      +1 718 260 9447

Received on Wednesday, 14 March 2012 13:14:36 UTC