Patent Policy Framework draft

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,

L.Doherty
witchypoo1@hotmail.com



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Received on Wednesday, 17 October 2001 09:05:21 UTC