Re: [Patents] W3C Publishes Patent Proposal; Comments Period Begins

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

> W3C Publishes Patent Policy

> By Margaret Kane
> January 28, 2002

> The World Wide Web Consortium, in the throes of deciding on
> a new policy for handling patent issues in its standards,
> has published its existing policy to clarify where it
> currently stands.

...

> If the working group is unable to come up with any other
> solution, it may recommend using the patent and allowing the
> patent holder to charge royalties on a RAND (reasonable and
> nondiscriminatory) basis. The RAND requirement would be
> subject to advisory committee review and the approval of the
> W3C director.

It seems to me that this paper merely declares as "current policy"
something which has not yet been practised and has met vehement criticism.
It reminds me of the EC's indprop unit which keeps proposing the same pro
EPO papers and declaring them as a "mere clarification of current
practise".  Where there is no argument in favor of a certain practise,
people at least try to give this practise the bonus of the incumbent
(established tradition), however unpersuasive and even deceitful such a
claim may be.

> The W3C is accepting comment on its proposal now; a final
> draft is expected to be ready in the next few months.

Thousands of comments on this have already been given.

One central point was that RAND is unreasonable and discriminates
against free software.

One very moderate response to this, which is likely to even get corporate
support, would be to demand that at least copyleft (GPL) implementations
and their use must be free of charge.

Why do they fail to mention that?

-- 
Hartmut Pilch                                          http://phm.ffii.org/
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
100,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/