policy re discussion of patents and patent applications

Tope Omitola off-list  wrote:
> 
> Which lists would you recommend?


At the W3C the correct lists are the member lists with the word patent in it, for example

https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/patent-issues/

is a fine list to have any discussion concerning patents.

For example, my message
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/patent-issues/2011AprJun/0002.html
mentions a patent application that may be of interest to participants in this group.

And, for example, the above text is an OK way to mention the existence of a allegedly interesting patent application.

As for our list policy please see
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/2010Jul/thread.html#msg382

where there was discussion of this matter with regards to this list.

There are several members of this list who, for commercial reasons, do not wish to discuss patents.

If you really need to alert members of this list to such a discussion please:
- start the discussion on some other list
- send to this list a pointer to your discussion with only the briefest indication of what it is about to this list

A helpful message in the earlier thread was this one from Damian, 
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/2010Jul/0387.html
that includes a pointer to a chair statement:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/2010May/0132.html

While I understand the interest, with a SWIG chairing hat on, I
recommend that participants here do not dissect patents and patent
applications on this list.

Until and unless the chair of the SWIG reverses this recommendation, I take that to be list policy

Jeremy