I am sure that the W3C is attempting to develop a policy which is "fair" to all the parties. My understanding is that the RAND policy would apply only to a party which participates in the development of the standard, but not to any independent, uninvolved party.
To simplify the issue at the heart of my question, let's assume that all parties are dealing in good faith and comply with relevant disclosure rules.
1. Participants in the standards process have a related patent application on file prior to participation in the standards effort.
2. Non-participants have patent applications already on file that cover the standards related work.
Assuming that one goal of any standards activity should be (make that shall be ) to not disadvantage those who put in the blood-sweat-and-tears to develop the standard, then....
How does W3C envison their Intellectual Property process and RAND such that participants in the standards process are not disadvantaged competitively by having the value of their intellectual property reduced or destroyed because they elect to participate in the standards group?
It's nice that they will ATTEMPT to make it install more securely by default. What are they going to do to help secure all the existing installations from the current (and future) gaping holes?
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I am sure that the W3C is attempting to develop a policy which is "fair" to all the parties. My understanding is that the RAND policy would apply only to a party which participates in the development of the standard, but not to any independent, uninvolved party.
To simplify the issue at the heart of my question, let's assume that all parties are dealing in good faith and comply with relevant disclosure rules.
1. Participants in the standards process have a related patent application on file prior to participation in the standards effort.
2. Non-participants have patent applications already on file that cover the standards related work.
Assuming that one goal of any standards activity should be (make that shall be ) to not disadvantage those who put in the blood-sweat-and-tears to develop the standard, then....
How does W3C envison their Intellectual Property process and RAND such that participants in the standards process are not disadvantaged competitively by having the value of their intellectual property reduced or destroyed because they elect to participate in the standards group?
It's nice that they will ATTEMPT to make it install more securely by default. What are they going to do to help secure all the existing installations from the current (and future) gaping holes?