Christian, Thanks for your comments. > I would like to add another point to Brian's review. I am concerned that the "General Policy," as stated in section 3.1, does not really present the IETF consensus. The current text says: > > In all matters relating to Intellectual Property Rights, the intent > is to benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while > respecting the legitimate rights of others. > > This is a bit misleading. The actual IETF approach is delineated in section 7, where it is explained that working group members are carefully weighting tradeoffs between the potential benefits of using a patented technology, and the potential impediments caused by licensing terms, or the uncertainty about licensing conditions. The purpose of early disclosure is to help working groups make informed decisions as early as possible, by opposition to investing a lot of effort on a particular design before learning about the IPR existence. > > Pretty much the entire policy derives from that. So maybe it should be stated upfront! I think you are right. Jari
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail