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Re: Experimental makes sense for tls-authz

2007-10-29 09:25:40
On Sun, 2007-10-28 at 09:05 -0700, Bill Fenner wrote:
RFC 2026, section 10.4.(D), gives boilerplate to add to a document
where there is known ipr:

         "The IETF has been notified of intellectual property rights
         claimed in regard to some or all of the specification contained
         in this document.  For more information consult the online list
         of claimed rights."

RFC 3667 removed this policy, because the absence of a notice in the
document doesn't mean that an ipr claim wasn't filed after the RFC was
published.  A notice can only tell you that there is a claim, but the
absence of a notice only means that there was no claim at the time of
publication, not that there is no claim.

IANAL, but my understanding is that the US patent system has a feature
which rewards ignorance and penalizes knowledge:  a plaintiff can get
"treble" (triple) damages if they can show "willful" infringment -- in
other words, if they can show that an infringer was aware of the patent.

So notices of this form may help plaintiffs recover more damages in the
event of a suit.  

Given that the boundaries of many/most software patents are vague, and
the statements made in IPR disclosures also tend to be vague, it's not
at all clear that these notices can protect implementors from being sued
for infringement. 

So who benefits most from the notice?  IMHO, it's the people who hold
patents, rather than people who want to build things.

The same can be said for the current FSF campaign targetting this list:
by widely publicizing one or more patents, it makes it much harder for
anyone charged with infringement to say they were unaware of the claims.

If anyone's counting:

I reject denial-of-service attacks on the IETF.  I support publication
of tls-authz as Experimental.

                                        - Bill




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