On 26 Sep 2007 at 14:06 +0200, Harald Alvestrand allegedly wrote:
Note that if:
- Company A has a patent on nanosecond gate opening
- Company A has issued the claim above, in conjunction with an IETF
standard
- Company B has a patent on the application of slow-drying oil paint
- Company A paints their house with such an oil paint
- Company B asserts their patent on slow-drying oil paint against
company A
then company B will automatically be the target for an assertion of the
nanosecond patent against all its uses of that patent, past, present and
future, within or outside the scope of the relevant IETF standard.
It's a blanket license for use of the technology by any company that
doesn't hold a patent, but it's definitely not a "no strings attached"
policy.
Harald, <sigh> this again.
- It's a blanket statement for anyone, including those who have
patents, who agree not to assert them. No license required.
- You can sue any time you like. All that happens is that this
agreement disappears. See the text.
- If you don't want to be bound by a non-assertion agreement, you
can get a license right at the very beginning. Some people do opt
for this. If you have a problem with getting license-free use in
return for not suing, you could too.
So what are you missing? All you "lose" is the ability to use the
technology license-free AND sue the holder at the same time.
This promotes sharing of technology and joint development of the
Internet. The only people who lose here are the patent parasites who
make a living off lawsuits, and those who insist that technology be
patent-free without actually looking at the terms of use.
Scott
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