RE: [security-services] FW: SOAP Confidentiality and Integrity: N extStep?

.

  
 I don't quite see how they expect to enforce this on others, but 
  if it is true that MS, IBM, VeriSign and Sun have taken this pledge (and I am 
  confident HP is on board as well) then it is hard to imagine some other 
  company with a blocking patent taking a hard line. This could have a 
  significant impact on the Rights Language TC and XACML. 

This was actually the 
main complaint Microsoft voiced (in public at the AC meeting a while back) 
against the W3C patent policy, the naked RF stance taken there would prevent the 
use of a patent to insist on reciprocal rights. What people really want is 
RF from the submitters and RF from as many other parties as they 
can.

 

Of course it is always 
possible for a patent troll to pop up, particularly a lone 'inventor' who 
has no employer with a stake in the success of the specification or a company 
whose only asset is some bogus IP. It is quite easy for such a person to 
obtain a patent through perjury, given the incompetence of the USPTO and the 
lack of public review. There are several examples of people taking IETF RFCs and 
filling a patent on the specification long after publication (this happened with 
PEM).

 

I can't say that the 
IP situation will ever be perfect, but I think the reciprocal license 
requirements come as close as we can.

 

        
Phill