[ih] prior art, Why the six month draft expiration ?

[John R. Levine]

> Long ago I suggested that the IETF follow the path of entities such as the 
> IEEE, by which I mean, the IETF should create a printed (yes, paper [perhaps 
> only printed on demand] as well as online) quarterly journal, call it 
> "Proceedings of the IETF", which would publish every ID and minutes of every 
> working group (including email interactions).

There's no need to print anything.  The USPTO says

  An electronic publication, including an online database or Internet
  publication (e.g., discussion group, forum, digital video, or social
  media post), is considered to be a “printed publication” within the meaning of
  35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(a) and (b) provided the
  publication was accessible to persons concerned with the art to which the
  document relates.

  https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2128.html

All of the IETF's I-Ds and email lists are in a public archive that the usual 
search engines visit so I think we're covered there.  I believe the EPO has a 
similarly broad view of prior art:

https://www.epo.org/en/legal/epc/2020/a54.html

R's,
John

PS:

> (I wonder, could one of these new LLC generative AI systems be trained on 
> IETF materials, including e-mail of working groups, and be provided as a 
> service to the community?  It would be nice if other bodies such as 3GPP, 
> W3C, and Chinese Next Gen IP, and other networking materials could be 
> included, but that could raise copyright/licensing issues.)

Given the tendency of LLMs to tell highly plausible lies, that would really be 
asking for trouble.