You folks want to end the wars over patents - including mine? - OK I agree its something that needs to happen but how? Apple v Samsung and Grail Semi v Mitsubishi have created even stronger walls in the patent worlds and these are becoming more and more of a show-stopper type of road-block to innovation. The problem is how to make patents and the protection they provide something that is more powerful and which has a cost of enforcement responsibility so that unenforced patents cannot be used as a weapon to stifle competition in the marketplaces... The key to doing that is actually pretty simple and it is in establishing a method of defining the worth to an unenforced patent, as to why, most patents issued today are empty threats - they will not be enforced no matter how many infringements there are against them and functionally this only serves to neuter the value proposition for the patents themselves. This is true today because there is no need to actively manage the patents because patent owners have gotten away for years by saying that their patents have no value (a bold faced lie by the way) and as such only have a positive value when an infringement that they choose to enforce a claim against happens... i.e. its mine but it has no value... so then isn't the real issue in this in developing a common and open-framework for establishing a value for an unenforced patent? As to why - tax bounty... pure and simple. This is an offer to change the world - and it can and should happen from within a GSO. Does the IETF want to be that entity? Todd Glassey -- //Confidential Mailing - Please destroy this if you are not the intended recipient.