On Jul 22, 2009, at 12:02 AM, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
Excellent, thanks for clarifying this. I was hoping that such a thing
as a call for patents exists, but indeed thought the patent call and
the license pool were more tightly linked. That they are two different
things is even better, so people are used to patent calls.
It could thus be something that the W3C could undertake to address the
submarine patent risk for Ogg Theora.
Some things to keep in mind about calls to disclose patents:
Standards bodies typically have an IPR disclosure and licensing policy
that is binding on members, as for example the W3C's patent policy.
Thus, a call for patents by a standards group that had many likely
holders of media compression patents as members, would be binding on
those members. If they failed to disclose a patent in accordance with
the policy, it is likely they would be unable to enforce it. However,
my best understanding is that a call for patents like this is not
binding on third parties who aren't part of the relevant standards
organization. Nor is a call for patents likely to be binding or
effective if it is not part of a pre-agreed IPR policy.
Thus, standardizing Ogg Theora through a standards body where media
compression patent holders participate would be somewhat effective at
flushing out patents. This body could even be the W3C if it held that
video formats are within its competency, and if it could encourage the
relevant stakeholders to join. Or it could be an existing media
compression standards group such as SMPTE. However, I don't think the
W3C could issue a binding call to disclose patents independent of
making Theora a W3C standard; and even if it did, such a call would
not be binding on anyone but participants in the relevant Working Group.
Regards,
Maciej
