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

[Sebastian Schnitzenbaumer <schnitz@mozquito.com>]

Simon,

> Any chance of:
> a) Sebastian or someone clarifying the IP story for XForms
 
a summary of XForms and patents as far as a non-lawyer can give one:
 
- There is US patent 6028938. The owner once claimed a 
 relationship between the patent and XForms. This is potentially 
 in the area of using XForms together with Digital Signatures,
 not affecting the core XForms by itself.
 
- Other than that, we know that we don't know. I'm not aware of 
 anyone who has disclosed a patent that affects XForms so far.

- However, XForms is not much more than a mix-and-match of 
 existing XML technologies (style sheets, XHTML etc., XML, 
 namespaces, XML Schemas, XPath, XLink etc.) - so unless somebody 
 has tried to patent obvious combinations between those, XForms 
 presumably doesn't add much to the situation that already existed 
 around software patents and internet standards.

> b) patent discussion moving to a different subject line
> c) Sebastian getting concrete answers on why XForms stinks?

That would be indeed very nice. Thank you Simon for trying to get
this discussion back on track.

Hope this helps,

Sebastian