Re: Expired patents
John C Klensin <john-ietf@jck.com> Fri, 20 June 2014 15:43 UTC
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Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 11:43:38 -0400
From: John C Klensin <john-ietf@jck.com>
To: Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Expired patents
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Hi. As several others have pointed out, automatic timeouts of any sort are likely to be very dangerous even if done well. They would also violate the key principle that the IETF makes no attempt to evaluate the validity of patent claims -- evaluation of whether or not a patent has expired or is no longer applicable is pretty definitely such an evaluation. Suggestion for consideration: Suppose we could safely separate IPR disclosures about a particular specification or technology from generic statements about a company's patent portfolio in relation to the IETF. I think that distinction should be straightforward, but IANAL and would hope we could get advise from Counsel on that before proceeding. If we could, it seems to me that it would be straightforward to automate a process by which a reminder were sent out some number of years (say 10) since the last update reminding the presumed rights-holder that a disclosure had been filed a decade earlier and inviting them up update the disclosure with any relevant new information of which they were aware. If kept automated and generic enough, it would involve no evaluation on the IETF's part. If the discloser wanted to say "as far as we know, this has expired", "all even-numbered claims have been invalided by courts and we are no longer considering trying to enforce them", or even "we have defended these claims in courts several time and collected damages from those who infringed", it would provide a reminder of the opportunity to provide that additional information. If not, it wouldn't have cost us anything or exposed us to new risks. I don't know if it would produce enough responses to be worth the trouble and don't know any way to find that out other than to make a leap of faith and try it. I also don't know whether I would recommend that given other priorities and calls on resources. It seems to me that is about the best we could sensibly do in the area of disclosures whose implications change with time (including, but certainly not limited to, expirations) without causing more problems or increasing risk. best, john
- Expired patents Brian E Carpenter
- Re: Expired patents Dave Crocker
- Re: Expired patents Martin J. Dürst
- Re: Expired patents Stephan Wenger
- Re: Expired patents Stephan Wenger
- Re: Expired patents Dave Crocker
- Re: Expired patents todd
- Re: Expired patents GTW
- Re: Expired patents John C Klensin
- Re: Expired patents John C Klensin
- Re: Expired patents Brian E Carpenter