- From: Gerald Lane <gtlane@us.ibm.com>
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:02:05 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
Historically, companies in the IT Industry have agreed to licensed patents under Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (RAND) terms when participating in formal standards setting activities. The policy of licensing patents under RAND terms and conditions has allowed our best technical individuals to work together without becoming burdened by patent issues. This approach encourages participants to contribute more of their patented technology resulting in the adoption of the best technical solutions. Allowing the standards activities to proceed in this manner, while moving the discussion of patent licenses outside of the standards developing organization, permits company-to-company patent dialogue and encourages individualized solutions to patent license issues. After all - there is no conceivable W3C patent policy that could address the non W3C member who holds a blocking patent on a W3C Recommendation. The W3C Patent Policy Framework Proposal will never provide complete certainty for specification developers and product implementers. We should allow the technical experts to work unencumbered by complicated rules and leave the patent issues for discussion outside of the standards organizations. Regards, Gerry Lane Program Director of Corporate Standards Practices North Castle Drive Armonk, New York 10504-1785 Internet: gtlane@us.ibm.com tel:(914)765-4369 tie:251-4369 / fax:(914)765-4420
Received on Thursday, 27 September 2001 15:01:38 UTC