Re: An Internet Draft as reference material

[Dave Crocker]

>since RFcs are archival. However, many I-Ds do not make it through the 
>process and to archive them may seem to elevate them to a status that they 
>have not merited.  I don't mean to suggest that these documents have not 
>value.  The next author of a book on the history of IETF standards would 
>certainly find them of great value. But, I don't want to see them cited in 
>some product marketing data sheet,


Rather than focus on tenuous possibilities, let's (re-)consider strong 
realites:

With inappropriate patents regularly being issued, we need to facilitate 
prior art searches.  The body of Internet Drafts is an extraordinarily rich 
source of material for networking innovation.

If the patent office staff and patent infringement defense attorneys had 
searchable access to the database of Internet Drafts, their jobs would bne 
easier and the quality of their work would improve.

d/