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Re: IPR at IETF 54

2002-05-30 09:52:30
RFC-2026, section 4.1.2 ("Draft Standard"):

 If patented or otherwise controlled technology is required for
 implementation, the separate implementations must also have resulted
 from separate exercise of the licensing process.

The problem is that very few standards make it to Draft. As the old saw goes, "the Internet is running on proposed standards". (A more accurate description would be "on Internet drafts and proposed standards"). Statistical details were presented at the last plenary.

Thus, this mechanism offers almost no remedy or protection. It would also be interesting to know if this has ever been checked in reality, even for the few standards that have made it that far. Also, this does not help if the two licensing arrangements are between two big corporations that have blanket mutual licensing deals, as is common. This says very little about whether a smaller company, a competitor or an open-source implementation could get a license.



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