The patent is currently being littigated between the
alleged holder and Earthlink.
It is unlikely that the alleged patent claims will have
any effect beyond a statement in any draft that they have
been asserted.
While the IETF does have an essential policy of RAND+RF
(you have to meet both, not either) it is written to
allow precisely this situation to be accomodated. The
guy has his patent, we know the prior art, we continue
on the basis of what we believe to be the case, that the
patent claims are unenforceable.
The worst case that happens is that the draft never
becomes a standard.
Phill
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Dean [mailto:eric(_at_)purespeed(_dot_)com]
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 10:00 PM
To: Yakov Shafranovich; asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: RE: [Asrg] C/R patents
I would have to say
a) We really don't know if we will "originate" anything
here...maybe the
final product will deviate considerably from the issued
patent..won't know
until we try
b) Intellectual property is not a new issue for the IETF.
There are many
big named vendors that wind up playing nice with their own
components. I
would have to ask the chair here to go up the chain and ask
how such an
effort might impact our work.
You'd think my annual dues would mean that the IETF have some big name
lawyers on staff 8-)
The question is if there are possible patents involved even
though there
might be prior art in place, who is willing to go ahead and sue
the owners?
And in regards to ourselves, will the possible legal liability or
licensing
fees, make companies and admins think twice before
installing any kind of
C/R system?
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