Dear all, these mailing lists are intended for technical conversations. While issues on patents are obviously important, patent discussions should be kept off this technical mailing lists. Frequently, participants employed by industry are prohibited from participating in discussion on patents by virtue of corporate policy and they find themselves in a very awkward situation if this happens on a mailing list that they intend to follow and contribute to. They may be forced to quit the mailing list as a consequence, which would be a loss for all of us. Let us please respect that.
If you believe that W3C as an organization should address a specific patent issue, please contact [email protected] (a member-confidential mailing list). When a patent is relevant to our work on a specification, W3C can launch a PAG (which is the appropriate forum for discussion of individual patents). Technically, that's the case when a claim that is essential to a recommendation-track document isn't available on a royalty-free basis. Disclosure and exclusion mechanics are available from the status of the document section of W3C technical reports. The patent policy and patent policy FAQ are available here: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/ http://www.w3.org/2003/12/22-pp-faq Thank you for your understanding Sincerely Ivan ---- Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/ mobile: +31-641044153 FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.rdf
