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

[Brian E Carpenter]

On 04-Feb-24 11:30, John R. Levine via Internet-history wrote:
> 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.

Ditto, and ditto.

> That would be painting a bullseye on ourselves for patent trolls.

Worse than that, it would make the IETF into an evil patent pool in
itself, with an extremely high risk of becoming a de facto cartel.

Fortunately, most active IETFers hate patents and (IMO) hate their
own corporate patent lawyers too. So we've had rather few instances
of the standards process being held hostage to patent claims.

> 
> 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.

And it says that patent claims MAY be taken into account in the decision
to standardize something. That flexibility is important - if someone does
show up with a patented bright idea, they are very strongly incented to
also show up with fair licensing conditions. Otherwise, no RFC, which matters
when purchasers require RFC compliance.

    Brian

> 
> 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