[idn] WALID, Inc. IP Statement

["J. Douglas Hawkins" <dhawkins@walid.com>]

Gentlemen:

We have received your messages of April 26, one to the WG and the other
from
the WG co-chairs to us suggesting a conference call.  In view of the
importance of the matter, we submit this response to clarify the status
of
our considerations.

We are seriously considering the WG's concerns and suggestions with
respect
to our IPR statement, although our statement was virtually identical to
many
other IPR statements that have been posted on the IETF site, including
statements submitted by companies such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Lucent,
Fujitsu, Cisco, EMC and many others including some of our competitors.

We are aware of and sensitive to the IETF's considerations, including
the
potential impediment to the standards-setting process that may be
presented
by such statements and IPR claims in general.

WALID, Inc. is genuinely committed to finding a solution that will
enable
the WG to fulfill its standards-setting objective of selecting the best
available technology for the RFC, yet at the same time we have a duty to
act
responsibly with respect to our employees and shareholders. We are
therefore
seeking a solution that will fairly balance the rights and interests of
all
parties, while also taking into account the broader interests of the
Internet community.

As we continue to work toward a solution, we are mindful that some of
the
issues involved, principally certain legal and policy considerations,
may go
beyond the IETF's technical standards-setting function.  Consequently,
we
require some additional time to complete our assessment, sort through
the
alternatives and identify an optimum solution.

Regards,
J. Douglas Hawkins
WALID, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Blanchet [mailto:Marc.Blanchet@viagenie.qc.ca]
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2001 10:14 PM
To: dhawkins@walid.com
Cc: jseng@pobox.org.sg
Subject: idn wg


On March 20th, the ietf idn wg co-chairs sent you a request for some
possible new IP statement from Walid inc. regarding the 6,182,148
patent.
On April 13th, you responded by a series of questions that were answered
on
the same day by one of the IDNA author. In order to help the process,
would
a conference call help Walid inc. to understand the IETF process?

Marc & James, co-chairs of the idn wg.