- From: Daniel Glazman <Daniel.Glazman@der.edf.fr>
- Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 11:22:53 +0100
- To: Håkon Wium Lie <howcome@w3.org>
- CC: www-style@w3.org
> This is probably off-topic, and I encourage y'all to flame me, but I've been > curious about something... > > Do other countries honor US patent law? What's to stop non-US companies from > cheerfully violating what is essentially a US-specific regulation? On the same > thread, why is a US company in charge of all domains world-wide? > > It just seems that discussion of the Internet is always centered on the US and > its policies. I have asked twice to Thomas Reardon, Microsoft representative at W3C, to tell us if MS has an equivalent patent in another country. I obtained no answer at all. My messages had a Cc to MS lawyer, she did not answer either. It seems that Microsoft CSS algo forgot to implement 'background-color : transparent' :-( Really a shame. I guess that a non-US company implementing CSS will fall under US regulation rules if a product is physically distributed in the US using a VAR... If sales are online, and if the web site explicitely mentions that the applicable legal system on the sales contract is company's national legal system, I guess that the general rules of World Trade Organization apply... Anyway, given the fact that products have been released a long time before MS patent, given the fact that most of these tools are protected by national or international regulations, I guess that MS tools potentially face more difficulties than others do.... Only my 0.02$... </Daniel>, Electricité de France AC-Rep @ W3C
Received on Friday, 12 March 1999 05:23:02 UTC