CNET on W3C Patent Policy

[Seth Johnson <seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org>]

> http://news.com.com/2100-1001-965863.html


W3C Bows to Royalty-free Pressure 

By Margaret Kane 
November 14, 2002


An Internet standards body has decided to drop a
controversial proposal that would have allowed patent
holders to charge royalties on technology used in Web
standards. 

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a standards body that
oversees some Internet protocols, has today released a
last-call working draft of its policy on patents. In an
earlier draft, the proposal allowed companies with patent
rights on technology behind standards authorized by the W3C
to demand royalties from companies using those standards. It
now states that all members who participate in a proposed
standard must agree to license any relevant patents on a
royalty-free basis.

If members aren't willing to do that, the working group
involved with that standard has a few options, including
investigating the validity of the patents, designing around
the patents, or transferring the standard to another
standards organization.

The patent issue surfaced last year when the W3C floated a
proposal that would have allowed companies to make relevant
technology available on a "reasonable and
non-discriminatory" (RAND) basis, which would let patent
holders collect royalties, but not place restrictions on who
could use the technology. 

That proposal was an attempt to solve a sticking point in
the standards process: Namely, that companies that spend
serious time and money coming up with the technology behind
a standard may be reluctant to give away the rights to what
they consider their intellectual property. 

But the RAND proposal met with fierce criticism from the
public, especially from members of the free software and
open-source movements.

"I felt I wanted to make sure we gave this question about
RAND the most thorough possible consideration," said Daniel
Weitzner, chairman of the patent policy working group at the
W3C. "The real tension there was that the vast majority of
the working group supports the proposition that what's
clearly desirable is (a) royalty-free (policy)."

The new policy does state that companies are allowed to
retain defensive use of their patents; the royalty-free
aspect only applies to technologies "essential for
implementing the W3C specification," the W3C said.

The last-call working draft is open to comments from the W3C
membership and the public until Dec. 31. The W3C working
group plans to develop a proposed recommendation in February
or March, and have a final policy ready for adoption by May
2003.