Last Call For Comments On W3C Patent Policy

Holger Blasum writes: "The W3C is closing its last call for comments on its future patent policy (with disputed RAND: "reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing") on 30 Sept 2001. One of the authors of the framework argues this to be not uncommon (and, in fact, RFC 2036's section 10.3.3 has it too). As it is common practice, the W3C has set up an archived mailing list (www-patentpolicy-comment-request@w3.org) for comments. Adam Warner has outlined (mirror) some possible consequences for th e SVG standard."

Comments

A Better Abstract

[CritterNYC]

They are trying to gather comments on how they should deal with patents in relation to web standards. When patents should be mentioned by those involved in crafting standards, licensing terms, etc. The best quote from the abstract: "The root of the challenge posed by patents in any standards arena is that participants in a standards body will be unwilling and unable to work collaboratively if, at the end of the process, the jointly-developed standard can only be implemented by meeting licensing terms that are unduly burdensome, unknown at the beginning or even the end of the design process, or considered unreasonable." It sounds like they are trying to prevent a Rambus-like mess from happening within web standards.