[ih] patent licenses, not Why the six month draft expiration ?

[John R. Levine]

On Sat, 3 Feb 2024, Karl Auerbach wrote:
> - I think it would be cool if ISOC or the IETF established an arm that could 
> accept and hold network related patents and issue licenses (for free or for 
> reasonable low fees and non-discriminatory terms.)  I have nothing more 
> detailed that that thought, but I do so much dislike the surfacing of patent 
> trolls, always at the most inconvenient of times.

Speaking as a former trustee of the IETF Trust,  GAAAAAHHHHH NONONONONONO.
That would be painting a bullseye on ourselves for patent trolls.

The IETF has a carefully designed patent policy.  It was largely written by 
Jorge Contreras who is quite literally the world's leading expert on standards 
and IP.  We were very lucky to have him work with us.  Scott was his coauthor 
and might fill in some details.

To oversimplify it says everyone involved in developing an RFC must disclose 
IPR related to it, and the IETF can decide what to do with them. Most IETF 
standards are either unencumbered or have free public licenses but there have 
been a few with more restrictive licenses.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8179.html

Here's Jorge's list of papers at SSRN, lots of stuff about FRAND, 
standard-essential patents, and a certain amount about trolls.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1335192

Regards,
John Levine, johnl at taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for 
Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly