Re: [rtcweb] Proposal for H.263 baseline codec

[Randell Jesup <[e-mail]>]

On 4/19/2012 7:32 AM, Marshall Eubanks wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 3:15 AM, Randell Jesup<[e-mail]>  wrote:
>> On 3/29/2012 1:12 PM, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
>>>
>>> Very interesting discussion. Out of personal curiosity, I have some
>>> questions inline.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 7:20 AM, Stephan Wenger<[e-mail]>    wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The most commonly cited timeline for a widely in use technology to be
>>>> "save" from a patent viewpoint, based on equitable defenses such as
>>>> laches
>>>> (in the US) is six years.
>>>
>>>
>>> Very interesting to know the usually used limit on the number of
>>> years. IIUC that would make Speex, Vorbis and Theora "save" codecs,
>>> since they were released in 2003, 2000, and 2004 respectively?
>>
>>
>> IANAL:  No, since the defense (with some notable exceptions) is by a
>> specific person against delayed assertion of a suit against them, so someone
>> using Speex for example could not use that defense for circa 6 years after
>> they began using it.  Note that publication of a spec doesn't violate a
>> patent (though using it may).  In practice the defense might be even more
>> limited, for example if the infringer made very limited use of the patent
>> for years such that the owner didn't even know they were infringing; it's
>> possible the court might start the clock when the owner knew or could/should
>> have known of the infringement.
>>
>
> I found a fairly detailed analysis of the defense of laches in patent
> cases starting at page 27 of this
>
> http://www.fdml.com/defenses.pdf
>
> Reading this dense legal reasoning makes me very nervous about relying
> on any of this for any IETF decision. Engineers should not
> pretend they are lawyers.

Quite true (though I've played one on TV^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H amateur 
lawyer quite a bit in a former job).  That document agrees with my 
comments (IANAL!!) so far as I can tell, and the basic answer is still 
"No, do not assume you're safe because you're using a codec published 
more than 6 years ago."  Not assuming you're safe is always the safe 
thing to do.  ;-)


-- 
Randell Jesup
[e-mail]