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113 lines
5.5 KiB
113 lines
5.5 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en-US"
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xml:lang="en-US">
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
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content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
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<meta name="generator"
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content="HTML Tidy for Mac OS, see www.w3.org" />
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<title>Ad Hoc Meeting on US Patent 5,838,906</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
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href="http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/base.css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<div><a href="/"><img src="/Icons/WWW/w3c_home" alt="W3C" width="72"
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height="48" /></a></div>
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<h1>W3C Holds Ad Hoc Meeting on Recent Court Decision, Launches Public
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Discussion List</h1>
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<p>By now, most of those reading this know of the recent court case of
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Eolas v. Microsoft in regards to US Patent 5,838,906. The patent claims
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to cover mechanisms for embedding objects within distributed hypermedia
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documents, where at least some of the object's data is located external
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to the document, and there is a control path to the object's
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implementation to support user interaction with the object. The
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implementation can be local or distributed across a network, and is
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automatically invoked based upon type information in the document or
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associated with the object's data. See the patent claims for details
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and for the precise scope of the patent. This patent may potentially
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have implications for the World Wide Web in general, including
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specifications from W3C.</p>
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<p>In the near term, Microsoft has indicated to W3C that they will very
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soon be making changes to its Internet Explorer browser software in
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response to this ruling. These changes may affect a large number of
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existing Web pages. W3C does not yet have any indication of what
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action, if any, other vendors of Web tools might take. In the longer
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term, should the court decision be upheld in its current form, some
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participants suggested that other action might be required. W3C has
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made efforts to contact the patent holder to determine their future
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intentions, but has not received any reply.</p>
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<p>W3C believes that it is important for the Web community to begin now
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to consider and contribute to the range of technical options
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available.</p>
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<p>As a result, W3C invited its Members as well as other key commercial
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and open source software interests to attend an ad hoc meeting, hosted
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by Macromedia, on Tuesday 19 August in San Francisco, California. The
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objective of the meeting was to begin to evaluate potential near-term
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changes that might be implemented in browsers, authoring tools, and Web
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sites as a result of the court case.</p>
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<p>There was widespread agreement that a solution that minimizes the
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effects of changes to Web software, Web sites and the user experience
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was needed. Microsoft presented several options that it has under
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consideration, and benefited from constructive discussion of these
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options. In addition, the meeting participants strongly supported clear
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communication on this matter, including establishing a developer Web
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site and mailing list to coordinate approaches for changes to Web sites
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and software, and providing early releases of software and
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documentation. Further details on these will be forthcoming.</p>
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<p>To enable the Web community to consider and contribute to the
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technical options, W3C has created a mailing list for public discussion
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on this subject, <a
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href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-plugins/">public-web-plugins@w3.org</a>.
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W3C is preparing a FAQ for public distribution, and has already
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initiated consideration of longer-term, standards-based solutions.</p>
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<p>Please note that W3C has not completed any formal analysis of the
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patent in question or the impact of the federal court opinion. W3C is
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not providing any legal advice to our Members or the public on the
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direct impact of recent developments, nor are we, by holding the
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meeting this past week, intending any implication about validity or
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applicability of the patent. Those implementing technologies in this
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arena will have to seek their own legal counsel on particular
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implementations of W3C Recommendations.</p>
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<p>W3C will continue to coordinate with the Web software vendors and
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organizations, and keep our Members and the public informed as these
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efforts progress.</p>
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<hr />
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<address><a href="mailto:steve@w3.org">Steven R Bratt</a>, Chief
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Operating Officer<br />
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World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)<br />
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Last updated: $Date: 2003/08/27 18:32:09 $</address>
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<p class="copyright"><small><a
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href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a>
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© 2003 <a href="/"><acronym
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title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</acronym></a><sup>®</sup>
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(<a href="http://www.lcs.mit.edu/"><acronym
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title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</acronym></a>, <a
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href="http://www.ercim.org/"><acronym
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title="European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</acronym></a>,
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<a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>), All Rights Reserved. W3C <a
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