Markus Stumpf wrote:
On Fri, Aug 27, 2004 at 06:28:00PM -0700, Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote:
Microsoft has clearly decided it is not going to get taken by another
Eolas type patent. Short of the USPTO burning down a second time
and all records being lost (if only!) the only way to get any
protection against a patent suit is to file for a patent yourself
and hope you got yours in first.
...
I really don't understand why the license has to have any restrictions?
Why do they put in this sublicensing thingy?
Why don't they simply say:
- we hold the patent
- we grant everyone and every company a 20/50/100 years irrevocable
license to make use of the IPR covered by this patent free of
charge.
They could even transfer the patent to the IETF/ISOC and make a contract
they will never have to pay any license fees nor can someone revoke the
license for them to use the IPR covered.
I don't understand it either. The patent trolls are not going to be
caught with the license anyway. Perhaps, a lawyer (Anne?) can explain this?
They do neither and because of that I neither trust nor do I believe them.
This is nothing special about Microsoft, it is generic to companies that
size and that historic behaviour (and to a lot of others, too).
It is interesting to note that RFC 3669 recommends using historical
behavior of the IPR holder as part of the overall decision on IPR issues:
" If working group participants are dissatisfied with the confidence
level they can obtain directly about licensing terms for a particular
technology, they can possibly extrapolate from history. In order for
licensed technology to become a draft standard, at least two
independent licenses need to have been issued. If the IPR claimant
for the technology the working group is considering has licensed
other technology in the past, there is a record of the sorts of terms
they are willing to grant, at least in those specific cases. This
sort of thing is weak but everything counts, and it may be of some
help.
"
It would be interesting to see what this evaluation what bring up in
regards to Microsoft.
Yakov