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<title>World Wide Web Consortium Clears Patent Hurdle for Web Privacy</title>
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</head>
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<body lang="en">
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<p><a href="../../ "><img src="../../Icons/WWW/w3c_home" alt="W3C"
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border="0"></a></p>
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<p></p>
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<h1>World Wide Web Consortium Clears Patent Hurdle for Web Privacy</h1>
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<h2>Patent analysis confirms Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) does not
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infringe Intermind Patent</h2>
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<p><strong>W3C Contacts</strong></p>
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<dl>
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<dt><strong>USA, Asia</strong></dt>
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<dd>Janet Daly, <<a href="mailto:janet@w3.org">janet@w3.org</a>>,
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+1.617.253.5884</dd>
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<dt><strong>Europe</strong></dt>
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<dd>Andrew Lloyd, <<a href="mailto:allo@ala.com">allo@ala.com</a>>,
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+44 1 27 367 5100</dd>
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</dl>
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<hr>
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<p><a href="http://www.w3.org/">http://www.w3.org/</a> -- 28 October 1999 --
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Removing a major hurdle to the deployment of privacy-enhancing technology on
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the Web, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released a legal analysis finding that
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<a href="../../P3P/">Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)</a> technology does not infringe a patent
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held by the Intermind Corporation. P3P enables Web sites to inform users of
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their privacy practices and will give users more control over the use of their
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personal information on the Web. Widespread deployment of P3P-compliant
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technologies was threatened when the patent holder sought to charge royalties
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for products or services using the P3P specification, despite the fact that
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the technology was developed in an open, collaborative process by a number of
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W3C Members.</p>
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<p>"Given the fundamental importance of privacy protection on the Web, and our
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commitment to open standards, we decided that it was our responsibility to
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provide the community with a thorough analysis of the relationship between the
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patent and P3P," said Daniel J. Weitzner, <a href="../../TandS/">Technology and Society</a> Domain Leader at the World Wide Web Consortium, responsible for P3P development.</p>
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<p>The complete analysis is available on the W3C Web site at <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/TR/P3P-analysis">http://www.w3.org/TR/P3P-analysis</a>.</p>
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<h2>The Analysis</h2>
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<p>The Intermind Patent (U.S Patent No. 5,862,325) claims rights in certain
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techniques of controlling interactions between clients and servers, especially
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with respect to the exchange of personal information. Though much of the
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Internet is based on such technologies, the assertion of proprietary rights in
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this field had a chilling effect on the Web community's plans for P3P
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deployment.</p>
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<p>W3C retained noted patent attorney Barry Rein, of Pennie & Edmonds, to
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evaluate the degree to which P3P does or does not infringe the Intermind
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patent. Mr. Rein and his team, assisted by Joseph Reagle, W3C Policy Analyst
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instrumental in the development of the P3P specification, concluded
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that compliance with the P3P standard can be accomplished without infringing
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Intermind's patent.</p>
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<h2>The Legal Argument</h2>
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<p>The legal conclusion that P3P technologies would not infringe the Intermind
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Patent rests on a comparison of the technologies claimed in the patent against
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the structure of P3P. The essential technology in Intermind's patent consists of
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"communications objects" used as "control structures" to direct
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client-server interactions. These control structures use object-oriented
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programming techniques to transfer both executable program instructions and
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associated metadata from client to server. P3P does not infringe the
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Intermind patent because it specifies no such control structure. The analysis
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prepared by Mr. Rein and his team finds:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>.... P3P does not include the control structure of the '325 patent claims
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for at least two fundamental reasons: (1) neither the proposal nor the User
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Preferences file includes data, metadata, and instructions organized using
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object-oriented programming to encapsulate the data together with the
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instructions for using it, and (2) neither the proposal nor the User
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Preferences file provides location transparency or completely specifies a
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communications relationship. For these reasons, P3P-compliant Web services
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and user agents do not literally infringe any claim of the '325 patent.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h2>Web Community Support Critical in Patent Analysis</h2>
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<p>During the course of the review, W3C called on the Web community to
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contribute information that might assist the attorneys in their work. W3C
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received over 100 substantial technology contributions from technologists all
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over the world. W3C would like to thank all who contributed to the effort
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for their help.</p>
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<h2>The Importance of P3P</h2>
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<p>P3P's design keeps users informed of a Web site's privacy practices, and allows
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users to control what information they choose to disclose to a Web site, as
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well as how that information may be used. P3P privacy disclosures and requests
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for information are expressed in the W3C's widely deployed Extensible Markup
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Language (<a href="http://www.w3.org/XML/">XML</a>).</p>
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<p>P3P technology was created by a consensus process involving representatives
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from more than a dozen W3C Member organizations, as well as invited privacy
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experts from around the world.</p>
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<p>For the first time in the history of the World Wide Web Consortium, the
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open technology development process came into conflict with intellectual property
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claims. "We felt that we owed it to the Web community to clear up the
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confusion over the Intermind patent," said Weitzner, "but hope not to make
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this a regular practice."</p>
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<h2>About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)</h2>
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<p>The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
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common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability.
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It is an international industry consortium jointly run by the <a
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href="http://www.lcs.mit.edu/">MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT
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LCS)</a> in the USA, the <a href="http://www.inria.fr/">National Institute for
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Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA)</a> in France and <a
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href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio University</a> in Japan. Services provided
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by the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide
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Web for developers and users, reference code implementations to embody and
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promote standards, and various prototype and sample applications to
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demonstrate use of new technology. To date, over 350 organizations are <a
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href="/Consortium/Member/List">Members of the Consortium</a>.</p>
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<p></p>
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