Re: [idn] Alternative Solutions

[Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>]

in the IETF community it has been clear for many years that DNS was
intended to be 8-bit clean, so for us the interpretation of RFC 1035
is clear.  

the interpretation may not be so "clear" (or it may be "clear" in a 
different way) to a court.  just like what is "obvious" to a person
experienced in Internet applications protocols  (and which therfore
should not be patentable) is not "obvious" to a patent examiner.

for this reason, and unfortunately, technically clueful people are 
probably not very good at trying to second-guess how technically 
clueless people will interpret technical prose.  we might be able to
come up with a compelling (to us) argument that the patent doesn't
apply because of language in 1035, but the best we can hope for is
that this would provide ammunition to a competent patent attorney
who isn't working for the Dark Side.

Keith