W3C Patent Policy Debates Continue!

Perhaps the biggest news from W3C in September had nothing to do with any one specification.  This news centered around a document released by W3C on Patent Policy.  The production of this document by W3C was encouraged because the consortium represents a diverse group with differing opinions about the nature of W3C Recommendations.  Some believe that Recommendations should be Royalty-Free.  Others believe that paying "Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory" (RAND) fees to the W3C is sensible and productive.

According to a recent statement by the W3C, "W3C recognizes that a Royalty-Free environment was essential to the growth of the Web, and the contributions of the open source developer community have been critical to its success. W3C also recognizes that software patents exist (and patent issues have become more prevalent with the growth of the Web), and ignoring them will do more harm than good. W3C is working hard to reach consensus in an area where there is an obvious tension, and to strike a balance among diverse interests."

The goal of W3C in producing the document focusing on patent policy is to prevent the Web community from being surprised by "submarine" patents where unsuspecting participants are forced to pay license fees after their participation in the creation of a Recommendation that they thought was unencumbered.  The goal is also to assure that future work is not hindered because of "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt." W3C hopes to assure that each Working Group can proceed to work around any perceived patent obstacle, or to abandon work if it is too encumbered by patents. Under this policy, W3C for the first time would allow for the possibility royalty-burdened technology into W3C Recommendations. 

Public Furor over the Patent Policy

Since the W3C Patent Policy was first released in September, many members of the W3C have commented about the proposed patent policy.  There are many different opinions, and not much agreement.  Lets examine just two responses.  First is the response from Sun Microsystems.  Sun and its staff, such as Jon Bosak one of the original editors of XML, believes that W3C specifications are essential to the proliferation of open Web standards and that W3C specifications "should  be submitted, developed, and released under a reciprocal, Royalty Free licensing obligation with respect to any essential intellectual property rights embodied in that W3C specification. 

Another response comes from Lauren Wood, former editor of the DOM specification and chair of the upcoming XML 2001 Conference this December in Orlando. Lauren's response represents SoftQuad, a small XML software vendor when compared with Sun.  "We believe that W3C patent and licensing policy should support the W3C mission of bringing the Web to all. [... ] we also believe that the policy should not discriminate against the many people, companies, and organizations from many countries who donated their intellectual property and their work over several years, without expecting licensing fees. Thus W3C should use every means in its power to ensure that all Recommendations are
royalty-free."

So, What's Next?

On October 13, 2001, W3C opened its patent policy process for continuing public dialog. The Open Source community is now represented by authorities Eben Moglen and Bruce Perens, who are joining the Patent Policy Working Group (PPWG) as invited experts. The PPWG has launched a public Web site. A second public Last Call for the W3C Patent Policy Framework is planned.

In addition, Danny Weitzner, PPWG Chair issued a next steps announcement.  In the announcement Weitzner first thanked everyone for taking the time to express your concern about the W3C Patent Policy.  Weitzner continues to state that "We are modifying the Patent Policy WG process to improve communication between the open source and independent developer community and W3C" and announces the invitation to Moglen and Perens to participate as invited experts.  He also announced that a Second Last Call for public comment would be posted before finalizing policy and assured everyone that W3C will not finalize this policy before we put out another public draft for comment.  Weitzner also indicated that all minutes of conference calls, working group meetings and public forums would be made available.  Weitzner further stated that the WG will publish an update on our work at least every three months, generally in the form of a new Public Working Drafts. I would expect to put out the next public draft by the end of October.

If you are a member of W3C, you can participate directly.  If not, you can track the patent policy work on the public home page and on the W3C home page.

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