Re: Consensus Call for draft-housley-tls-authz

[Eliot Lear <lear@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Richard,

On 3/10/09 7:21 PM, Richard M Stallman wrote:

    Under the current patent system a company that does not apply for =
    "" risks finding that a patent troll has applied for their idea. =

Publishing the idea should have the same effect as patenting it: to make
future applications invalid.
  

Let me pose you a scenario and ask for your advice:

1. Vendor A develops technology and works to see adopted an associated standard, publishing as you suggest above.
   
2. Vendor B then develops an important extension to that work and patents it.  Vendor B extorts an expensive license arrangement from Vendor A.
   

What is Vendor A to do to protect itself from such an attack?  One approach is Vendor A patenting the technology and cross-licensing at reasonable terms (like don't sue us and we won't sue you).  What would you suggest instead?

Eliot

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