Summary of 28-30 January 2003 Patent Policy Working Group meeting

Hello,

Twenty-nine people participated in the tenth Patent Policy Working
Group (PPWG) face to face meeting held 28-30 January 2003. Three
participated by phone. The group resolved or partly resolved their
responses to thirteen issues [1] raised during Last Call [2]. Some
issues were discussed in combination.

*  The PPWG felt no change to the draft policy was necessary for
    disclosure of unpublished patents.

*  Three PPWG participants planned to work together on a response to
    the field of use restriction issue.
*  To clarify interim licenses, the Chair took an action item to drop
    section 11.

*  Over two days, the group discussed an exception process for the
    possible case of using technology in a W3C Recommendation that is
    not available under the W3C RF licensing requirements.

*  Also over two days, the group discussed the deadline and binding
    document for Working Group participants to make a royalty-free
    licensing commitment. They adopted a new proposal: W3C Working
    Groups would issue a call for exclusion three months after the
    publication of the first Working Draft. Participants would have
    two months from then to make their exclusion statements.

*  The group agreed that a patent holder would be required to license
    over the life of the patent rather than the life of a
    Recommendation, and that that issue is editorial.

The group set milestones toward a goal of having a finished policy by
the May 2003 W3C Advisory Committee meeting.

[1] http://www.w3.org/2001/ppwg/rf-patent-policy-lc-issues.html
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-patent-policy-20021114/

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 Tuesday, 18 March 2003 15:26:21 UTC