Re: [idn] Assessing patent "validity"

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

Dave Crocker writes...

> It is tempting for the working group to travel down a path, considering
> whether the Walid patent is valid.
> 
> Let me very, very strongly encourage people to avoid the temptation:
> 
>          An IETF working group lacks competence for such a
> discussion.  Nothing we can do will change that.

[...]
>          So we need to engineer a solution that works around their patent.

it strikes me that attempting to determine whether the patent is valid
is very similar to attempting to determine whether a proposed solution
infringes a patent.  each is subject to the whim of some technically 
clueless judge, whose decisions are informed by technically clueless
patent attorneys, who are paid not to bring expertise to the discussion 
but to oppose one another.

what we have to do in IETF is reach consensus.  we might reach consensus
because we mostly think that our solution doesn't infringe the patent at
all, or we might reach consensus because we mostly think that our solution
doesn't infringe portions of the patent that will hold up in court.  and
different people can have different reasons for supporting it.

Keith