www-patents enforcements will halter the internet growth

Dear Sirs,

It is my strong belief, deeply rooted in historic events and normal, sound human reactions, that attempts to enforce any patents on new web standards will be both an economic disaster for the companies that will try to enforce the patents as well as all the world wide business heavily depending upon the growth of the internet.

It may not be clear, especially for US companies, that the patent laws and human perception of what is fair and reasonable is significantly different across the different regions and ethnic groups around the world.
While patentable items could be covered by US laws, it is not an unrealistic statement to say that in some cases these laws or patents seen from outside US are not only unenforceable in other countries, but could be seen from the common sense mindsets as greedy attempts by corporations as making money on any possible subject whatsoever.

While this is more acceptable in US, it is certainly not seen as acceptable in many other parts of the world.

Which comes to my point, that these attempts may at the end hurt the enforcer of the patents, being small or large corporations, as a result of the outrage and boycotts that is likely to grow up from the internet users around the world, to the extent these companies will suffer badly.
The Internet traffic may as a result suffer badly. Growth and revenues may suffer tenfold versus the small income some patent enforcers could obtain.

History should have learned us all that certain rights and services are considered to be free even if the laws and regulations theoretically say otherwise. The Beta-tape versus the VHS could be a good example where lawful licensing required on a smaller, technically better system at that point in time, eventually lead to the demise of the format. History should have learned us that many large corporations have had to get down on their knees and abandon similar attempts throughout the history and some were left badly crippled along the way.

Sirs, I am convinced that the attempts to enforce patents as now under discussions in W3C is not a smart move and will not be of long term benefit to the potential enforcer themselves, the internet growth or the users around the world.

Regards,

Trond Noren

Disclaimer: These views are my personal view and not associated with any organisation, company I am or have been working for or in any way associated with. This is not an attempt to in any way hurt, boycott or reduce revenues from any individuals, companies, organisations or governmental officies and it is not in any way a suggestion for any actions, boycotts.