News Release: World Wide Web Consortium Releases New Draft of Patent Policy

For more information, please contact Janet Daly, W3C, at +1 617 253
5884.


World Wide Web Consortium Releases New Draft of Patent Policy

Community and Member Feedback Shapes New Royalty-Free Draft

Contact America -- 
Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613 
Contact Europe -- 
Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94 
Contact Asia -- 
Saeko Takeuchi <saeko@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170 
(also available in French)


Web resources
	This press release
	http://www.w3.org/2002/02/pp-update-pressrelease.html.en

	New W3C Patent Policy Working Draft
	http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-patent-policy-20020226/	

        Backgrounder on W3C Patent Policy Progress
	http://www.w3.org/2002/02/25-pwd-summary.html

	Homepage of W3C Patent Policy Working Group
	http://www.w3.org/2001/ppwg/
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http://www.w3.org/ -- 26 February 2002 -- The World Wide Web 
Consortium (W3C) today published a revised Patent Policy Working 
Draft which is based on strong, explicit commitments to producing 
Royalty-Free (RF) specifications. To achieve the goal of producing 
Royalty-Free specifications, the draft requires all who participate 
in the development of W3C Recommendations to make any essential 
patents they hold available for free.

The option which would have permitted W3C Members the option to 
charge for the use of patented technologies in W3C Recommendations 
(called "reasonable and non-discriminatory terms", or RAND) has been 
removed, pending final resolution of the question of what role RAND 
technologies should play in Web standards.

W3C Patent Policy Draft Incorporates Public and Member Feedback

Since the August publication of the first public Working Draft of 
the W3C Patent Policy, the Patent Policy Working Group has received 
thousands of email messages from both W3C Members and the public, 
with questions and concerns regarding the document. Many of the 
constructive suggestions provided direction and points of discussion 
for the Working Group. The Patent Policy Working Group has invited 
members of the Open Source community as participants and has published 
publicly-readable minutes for each meeting.

W3C Makes Formal Commitment to Royalty-Free Specifications

The new Patent Policy Working Draft differs from the previous draft 
in three significant ways:

    The RAND track for W3C Working Groups has been removed. 
    There is no process in this policy for developing RAND 
    specifications. However, the Working Group has an open 
    question on options for accommodating RAND technologies 
    in exceptional circumstances. 

    Working Group Participants must now commit to Royalty-Free 
    Licensing.
 
    Defensive use of patents is allowed only in the case where a 
    holder of essential claims is sued for patent infringement in 
    the implementation of a W3C Recommendation. 

Though the final W3C Patent Policy is still under development (this 
recent draft is a version of what will become the final policy), W3C's 
current operating procedure with respect to patents already contains a 
firm commitment to Royalty-Free standards. 

Work Continues, Additional Drafts in 2002

The Patent Policy Working Group seeks public comment on this new 
Working Draft and encourages the larger Web community to be aware of 
the state of discussions within the Consortium. As with the previous 
draft, public comments are considered valuable, and will be taken into 
account for future revisions. Though the basic outline of this policy 
is now stable, it remains a work in progress, with several significant 
issues remaining unresolved.

Notably, neither the Patent Policy Working Group, nor the W3C 
Membership as a whole has a final decision about what role, if any, 
RAND technologies will play in the final policy. Both public and Member 
comments had a significant impact on the direction of the policy, which 
puts priority on developing RF specifications. However, many W3C Members 
feel that there should be a way a dealing with technologies only 
available on RAND terms within the W3C Process, at least on an 
exceptional basis. This issue remains a focus of continued discussion.

There also remain questions about how the terms of the royalty-free 
license as defined in this policy will interact with various Open 
Source licenses. Though the Patent Policy Working Group believes that 
the RF license as proposed is compatible with most major Open Source 
licenses, there are still questions about interaction with the GPL. 
The Patent Policy Working Group is working toward resolution of 
GPL-related issues.

Before the patent policy is finalized, at least one more public draft 
will be released for review this year. Following the normal W3C Process 
for approving technical Recommendations, after the publication and 
review period for a Last Call Working Draft, the Working Group plans 
to prepare a final draft (Proposed Recommendation) for W3C Advisory 
Committee Review, after which the Director will determine the final 
disposition of the policy.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing 
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its 
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly 
run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, 
the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control 
(INRIA) in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by 
the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World 
Wide Web for developers and users, and various prototype and sample 
applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, over 500 
organizations are Members of the Consortium. For more information 
see http://www.w3.org/

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Received on Tuesday, 26 February 2002 10:18:30 UTC