On Thu, 15 Apr 2010, todd glassey wrote: > Dean - I think the problem is that the individuals in the IETF who > represent their sponsors are generally not licensed patent agents or > attorneys (although there are a couple of exceptions to this last one) > and so its really hard for someone who has no experience in the patent > process to make any reliable commentary. I think there are two aspects of commentary ... commenting on the legal aspects is, as you have noted, of limited value. But commenting on the technical basis of a patent claim is within the realm of expertise of this group, just as most of us have no legal standing, only some of us will be experts for any any given issue. We can comment on prior art and we can comment on the question of whether a particular issue represents a solution that experienced practitioners in a particular technology would come up with as an obvious solution. Those observations may, when taken back to our interested parties, may stimulate proper legal process actions to object to or support a particular patent application. The open discussion in the IETF can make a meaningful contribution, even if the opions on their own have no legal standing. _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf