RE: [xml-dev] Let's get real on W3C XForms 1.0 (why it stinks, to day)

[Jim Ancona <scarhill@yahoo.com>]

--- Ann Navarro <ann@webgeek.com> wrote:
> At 12:07 PM 10/5/2001 -0700, Jim Ancona wrote:
> >But with Benjamin's wording, that wouldn't matter. If the company 
> >inadvertently
> >fails to disclose, fine, they just granted the world a free license to use
> the
> >patent to implement the recommendation.
> 
> And the first time someone tries to claim an "instant free license", watch 
> the law suits fly -- nothing is that simple.

Of course, anyone can sue anyone else for anything. But if the patent holder
has signed a contract which obligates them to grant a free patent license to
any implementor of a W3C REC, the implementor will be in a much stronger
position in such a lawsuit than they would be without such a contract in place.
IANAL, so I won't presume to suggest precise wording for such a contract, but I
can't see why it couldn't be written. Granted, that getting Sun, Microsoft, IBM
et al to sign it may be a more difficult problem.

Jim


=====
Jim Ancona
jim@anconafamily.com                     jancona@xevo.com

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