Re: Should we worry about Sun's patents?
On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 8:40 AM, Ralph Baker Kearfott <rbk@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Arnold,
>
> On carefully re-reading your post, I see you said
>
> "I'd like to ask for clarification how/whether the existence of these
> patents should affect the standardization procedure."
>
> That is different from "affect whether we obtain a standard" or
> "affect cost of implementation of the standard."
>
> I CAN answer the precise question you ask, with "No." That is,
> my belief is that we should proceeding without worrying about
> Sun's patents. That's a job for someone else. If Sun has
> an interest it feels is being countered by the standardization
> decisions being made by P-1788, it can direct its representative
> on P-1788 to represent Sun accordingly. We should act
> according to our goals, but I suggest we should occasionally
> search our own souls to focus precisely on what our own goals
> are (especially if we are in academia and not constrained by
> commercial interests).
Can the standard be implemented at reasonable cost
without "falling" into those patents?
This situation places another constraints: that we have an encumbered
and reasonable implementation of the spec we end up producing as a
proof-of-concept.
-- Gaby