Comment on patent policy

To whom it may concern:

I wish to submit my thoughts on this matter.  Simply put, I think it is a
bad idea when a proprietary patented, technology becomes part of a
"standard" in this case the protocols behinds the web.  While I am all for
companies developing proprietary technology, it should never become a
standard endorsed by an otherwise neutral governing body or consortium.
It's bad enough when a proprietary product or protocol becomes a de facto
standard simply owing to overwhelming user adoption.  We don't need to
encourage that further by giving it our official blessing.

Morever, if a patented technology becomes a standard, it will just mean
fragmentation and lack of universal adoption.  You can be sure that those in
the open source community will develop an alternative standard- one that is
open and free from onerous patent and license issues.  This will just lead
to the opposite effect that the w3c would want- a uniform way for all to
interoperate on the web.

So please reconsider the adoption of patented technology as part of the
official web standard.  This will only be helping those who hold the patent
and no one else while driving the web towards fragmented, non-interoperable
and competing protocols.

Thank you for your time and interest.

Dr. Nath

Received on Monday, 28 January 2002 16:19:31 UTC