[Patents] patents on ITU-proposals (g.723.1)

[kristoff.bonne@compaqnet.be (Kristoff Bonne)]

Greetings,

On Thu, 15 Nov 2001, DIETRICH Yann FTRD/VAT/ISS wrote:
> It is a general question about standards, ITU policy is very closed to
> others patent policies like ISO, ETSI. Such policies are very important for
> interoperability because patent holders have to license their essential
> patents under fair and reasonable conditions. ...
Well, that's also what I thought!
(well, at least reading the information on the ITU-webpage).

I don't know, but saying "these hardware g723.1 codec-cards can only be
used by netmeeting. To me, that doesn't really sound like 'fair and
reasonable conditions', does it?
(To me, this looks like using the g923.1 patent to bar competing software
products access to a certain technology)?


I'm not a lawer; so can you explain me in 'laymen'-words?

- Can the openh323 organisation make microsoft licence g.723.1 to them and
what should they do when microsoft does not comply?

- Can the patent-hold (microsoft) then invoke additional restrictions on
the code (like "openh323.org is responsable for making sure microsoft gets
payed for every 'customer' of the the g723.1 codec")?

(Which means "no open-source").


- Could this issue be solved by having just 'hooks' into the openh323-code
and selling the codecs as a seperate entity (a seperate piece of software
or as hardware-cards)?




> But it is clear, also, that discussions in ITU IPR group or in other
> standardization organization show me that opensource or free software issues
> are not well known or more in such groups. But it is not general and I think
> that policies like in W3C or IETF are more compliant with opensource
> constraints.
Euh. Wasn't there talk in the W3C to allow it 'accept' patented technology
as an official W3C standard?


Cheerio! Kr. Bonne.