- From: Angelos D. Keromytis <angelos@cs.columbia.edu>
- Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 13:41:15 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
In response to your recent draft on patent policy, I must express my strong disagreement with the endorsement of RAND-style standards. a) Endorsing RAND-style standards does not address any of the stated (or, from my point of view, imaginable) threats to the standards process: submarine patents can still be used in exactly the same way as they are used today. There is no incentive for the holder of a patent to reveal the patent to the W3C -- in fact, quite the contrary. RAND standards do not offer a solution for this. The patent disclosure policy, on the other hand, can be useful. b) As a result of (a), FUD is not diminished in any way during the standards development process. The disclosure provisions protect against insider attacks (see Cisco and VRRP in the IETF); on the other hand, nothing protects against relevant patents held by entities outside the W3C process. c) While the W3C is not in the business of maintaining open source software, it is a fact that the most popular web server by a large margin is a product of open source development. RAND-style standards would make development of similar software impossible. There is something to be said about maintaining a level playing field. I hope the W3C will reconsider against a policy that seems to benefit only holders of large patent portfolios and cross-licensing agreements. Regards, Angelos D. Keromytis Assistant Professor Computer Science Department, Columbia University
Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 13:43:05 UTC