Guys, Just my 0.02 USD. A) I have been part of a few standards and the IPR always comes up. I also have been a member of patent committees for > 10 years. But am not a lawyer. B) All the standard bodies (OASIS/W3C, DMTF et al) have their own policies - for example W3C Patent Framework - http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-patent-policy-20010816/ C) Usually it is not our job, as developers, to chase down patents nor should we actively look for patents before we develop anything D) But once we are aware of a patent (like in this case), we should definitely document that fact. E) And if we can get a RAND license[1] from the patent holders it would be good. All we need is the freedom to implement the essential aspects in Mahout. But it might take years. F) Going back to the patent, unless the algorithm faithfully follows the known patent, I am not sure it even makes sense to get an clearance from them. There could be others (even derivatives) lurking. G) I am not sure what the patent framework for Apache is. Would be happy to help. Cheers <k/>
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing On 6/22/11 10:04 AM, "Sebastian Schelter" <s...@apache.org> wrote: >Hello, > >this is Sebastian from the PMC of Apache Mahout writing. We received a >contribution that includes an implementation of Google's famous PageRank >algorithm (see https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MAHOUT-742 ). > >We'd love to include this in Mahout, yet we know that the University of >Stanford is holding a patent on PageRank ( >http://www.google.com/patents?vid=6285999 ). It seems that this patent >is not enforced because there are a lot of PageRank implementations >already available on the internet. > >However we'd like to get clarification on whether we are allowed to >include this implementation in Mahout. > >I already contacted Prof. Garcia-Molina from Stanford's Departments of >Computer Science and Electrical Engineering asking for advice who >helpfully suggested to contact Deputy General Counsel Thomas W. Fenner >(tfenner [at] stanford.edu) to clarify the legal issues. > >This is my first time working on a legal issue regarding Apache, what is >the process and what do I have to do to get clarification? > >Thank you, >Sebastian
