Patent Policy

World Wide Web Consortium
Patent Policy Working Group
www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org

Dear W3C Patent Policy Working Group,

         I'm concerned about the recent Patent Policy Framework draft, 
which could allow W3C members to charge royalty fees for technologies 
included in web standards.
In particular, I object to the inclusion of a "reasonable and 
non-discriminatory" (RAND) licensing option in the proposed policy. I 
believe that the exclusive use of a "royalty-free" (RF) licensing model is 
in the best interests of the Internet community, and that RAND licensing 
would always necessarily exclude some would-be implementors.
         I applaud the W3C for its tradition of providing open-source 
reference implementations and its work to promote a wide variety of 
interoperable implementations of its open standards. The W3C can best 
continue its work of "leading the Web to its full potential" by continuing 
this tradition, and saying no to RAND licensing.


Sincerely,
Michael Taylor