Summary of 21 January 2002 Patent Policy Working Group Teleconference

Hello,

Fourteen people attended the 21 January 2002 Patent Policy Working
Group (PPWG) teleconference. They covered face-to-face meeting
logistics and an agenda item. Continuing their review of the
Royalty-Free (RF) internal draft, the discussion centered on the
section about exclusion, formerly called opt-out, 60 days after a
Working Group's requirements document is published. The concept of
exclusion under discussion means that a participant could name patents
they hold that will not be licensed on an RF basis, or could resign
from a Working Group and be excused from licensing commitments. There
was near consensus that exclusion should be allowed. Concerns were
expressed that Working Group participants, who may be engineers with no
knowledge of patent portfolios, might guide and shape the group's work,
only to claim patent rights on that work at the last minute. The
question of whether a participant who holds claims may continue to
participate was examined. It was thought that if the results of patent
claims are public, free and open source software developers will act to
find prior art. The needs for a process for contributors, and a way for
a Member to leave the group were mentioned. The group's next
teleconference is 28 January.

Best wishes,
-- 
Susan Lesch           http://www.w3.org/People/Lesch/
mailto:lesch@w3.org               tel:+1.858.483.4819
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)    http://www.w3.org/

Received on Sunday, 27 January 2002 23:47:06 UTC