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

[Don Park <donpark@docuverse.com>]

Cases outline below are remedied with a so called 'suicide' clause, a device
often used by companies as protection against hostile takeovers.  If and
when a recommendation has patent dispute, there should be only two possible
outcome as illustrated by one of the most famous quotes:

  "Give me freedom or give me death."

Either the patent holder grants free use of the patent by the recommendation
and its implementations or the recommendation is revoked.  This could result
in years of labor being wasted, but such waste is far preferable to the
alternative in my opinion.

Best,

Don Park
Docuverse

Jeff Lowery wrote:
> There's also the issue of patents acquired from non-W3C member companies
> *after* a recommendation has been released. This could easily happen
>  as the result of a merger.

Jim Ancona wrote:
> 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.