From: Eric Miller (em@w3.org)
Date: 10/25/01
Peter,
Your interpretation of Dan's request is too broad. We ask everyone who
makes a Submission Request to W3C to state their IPR claims. As indicated
in the W3C Submission Template [ref] (see the Implementation heading) we
prefer an agreement to Royalty Free licensing. The RF license we request
would apply not to "any patent related to the submission" (your words) but
only to "Essential Claims" required to implement the specification:
"[Member] agrees to offer to all a Royalty-Free License (as
defined in the W3C Patent Policy) for any Essential Claims
(as defined in the W3C Patent Policy) reading on the
specification to make, use, sell, offer for sale or import
portions of implementations complying with the specification."
- http://www.w3.org/2001/09/rf-license.html
(not currently World-readable)
The Essential Claims are a much narrower set than you suggest in your
message. It is our opinion that the technologies at the core of the
Semantic Web should be implementable by everyone without payment of royalty.
There have been many misunderstanding and misstatement about the proposed
W3C Patent Policy Framework. One of the lessons we have learned from that
discussion is that we want to be more explicit about the IPR expectations
up front. We know you will understand why we are asking the DAML+OIL
Submitters to acknowledge Royalty Free intentions at this time.
[ref] http://www.w3.org/Submission/1996/Template/
--
eric miller http://www.w3.org/people/em/
semantic web activity lead mailto:em@w3.org
w3c world wide web consortium tel:1.614.763.1100
200 technology square, ne43-350 fax:1.208.330.5213
cambridge, ma 02139 usa
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