[PP-DIALOG] Public Interest Patent Law Institute comments on FAQ Revisions

[Alex Moss <alex@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All,

The Public Interest Patent Law Institute (PIPLI) supports the proposed revisions to the FAQ for the IEEE's Patent Policy. 

The FAQ on prohibitive orders helpfully clarifies the role of national/regional laws governing prohibitive orders and the permissibility of seeking them. However, given the importance of these issues, we believe further clarity is needed, particularly with respect to an implementer’s willingness to negotiate in good faith.

The FAQ on updates to the IEEE’s patent policy provides clarity that is especially helpful to members of the public who do not participate in standard setting. The public should be able to rely on the IEEE’s statements about policy changes (or updates) to understand their substantive significance and underlying rationale(s). Given that IEEE participants may have different views on policies and different interpretations of policy changes, the public should not be encouraged to make substantive inferences beyond what the IEEE itself has stated. The proposed FAQ stating that changes may be made for “any” reason rightly discourages the public from making such inferences and instead encourages the public to look to the IEEE’s statements to understand policy changes. Going forward, we also encourage the IEEE to provide as much substantive information about policy changes contemporaneously as possible.

PIPLI is grateful to the PatCom for the opportunity to comment and its work on these important issues.

Regards,

Alex Moss

____________________________

Executive Director
Public Interest Patent Law Institute
79405 Hwy 111 Ste 9-414
La Quinta, CA 92253
www.piplius.org
(818) 281-2191

---

To unsubscribe from the PP-DIALOG list, click the following link: https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=PP-DIALOG&A=1