What is the status of the patent claims on P3P?
In the summer of 1998, the P3P working groups were informed that Intermind, Inc., claimed to hold a patent that directly related to P3P. At that time, Intermind proposed licensing terms that would have required users of P3P-related technolgies to pay royalties to the company. Work on P3P slowed during this period while the merits of Intermind’s claim was investigated. W3C asked a major patent-law firm to analyze the claim. On 27 October 1999, Barry Rein et al. from Pennie & Edmonds law firm released their assessment of the patent claim. Their analysis concluded that there was no risk of patent infringement. Since then, Intermind, which has changed its name to OneName, has indicated that even if P3P-related technologies were to overlap with their patent, no royalties would be assessed. In a letter to Lorrie Cranor, chair of the P3P specification WG, OneName wrote: As a result of these changes [to our business plan], we can now assure you that, in spite of positions that Intermind may ha
