The IETF, like any other standard body, isn't about publishing idea or inventing things, but all about enabling interoperability between discrete implementations and parties. Patents do not enable interoperability on their own because of their nature and limitations (at least in the US). However, patents are often involved when engineering interop solutions.
The questions you have to ask yourself are: Are you looking to create a new market? Is this market more likely to succeed if it is open for all and free to participate or fee-based? Are you going to make a greater profit in an open (bigger) market or in a closed (usually smaller) market? EHL On 1/21/10 4:57 PM, "Abhishek Verma" <[email protected]> wrote: Hi, I have a basic question relating to patents and IETF. Assume that i have a nifty idea on how i can speed up, lets say, a database exchange in OSPF. My doubt is that why should i submit an IETF draft describing this, which can later become an RFC, when i can very well patent this idea? I understand that if i submit this to IETF, then there will be an RFC and all vendors will come out with inter-operable implementations. However, if i dont give it to IETF and rather submit a patent, i can do very well for the vendor that i work for. All customers using this vendor's boxes will now have access to patented database exchange in OSPF, which will effectively mean more business for this vendor. So, the question is, what is the motivation for somebody to write an internet-draft when the person can file a patent? I spoke to several people offline and i couldnt get any good answers. The typical response was that most ISPs prefer multiple vendors, and a patented solution will cause issues as the other vendor will not have that support. Is this the only reason? Thanks, Abhishek _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list [email protected] https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf
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