In what ways can a patent holder disclosing and/or excluding an essential patent claim cooperate with the Patent Advisory Group (PAG)?
The patent holder can cooperate by facilitating the creation of a specification which conforms to W3C’s patent policy, helping the Working Group (and the Patent Advisory Group if one exists) understand how to proceed. To do so, the excluder can: • Indicate with precision which features in a specification may be covered by the claim, and/or • Discuss with the Working Group or the PAG possible changes to the specification which might avoid the claim. While this entry does not change the requirements stated in this Patent Policy itself, this kind of cooperation could result in the creation of an RF specification in an area that is important to the excluder. The patent holder may also derive positive publicity and good will from contributing to, rather than preventing, the development of open Web standards.
