Subject: Patents and IETF

From: Tulip Rasputin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 02:47:35 -0400 (EDT)

Hello,
Have there been any patents filed in the field of routing/routing protocols?

I am a little confused because we have IETF standards (drafts and RFCs)for routing. Is there a
rule which says that one cant file patents in routing or something?

I would be really very grateful if somebody could answer this for me.

Thanks and Regards,
Rasputin

______________________________________________________________________ 
Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca

---

From: Harald Tveit Alvestrand <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:38:09 +0200

> Have there been any patents filed in the field of routing/routing

Yes.
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/ allows you to search on "Routing AND protocol", 
and tells you that you have 14604 hits :-(

>
> I am a little confused because we have IETF standards (drafts and
> RFCs)for routing. Is there a rule which says that one cant file patents
> in routing or something?

No. And the lack of such a rule is not making life in the IETF any easier.

---

From: "Tony Hain" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 09:25:54 -0700

Harald Tveit Alvestrand wrote:
> > RFCs)for routing. Is there a rule which says that one cant file 
> > patents in routing or something?
> 

Harald,

While that is correct, he probably needs a pointer to:
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2026.txt?number=2026

section 10.

Tony

---

From: Harald Tveit Alvestrand <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 18:48:50 +0200

> http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2026.txt?number=2026

actually what I was trying to say is that there is no rule in the patent 
system against patenting technology relevant to the IETF, and as a result, 
the IETF has to wade through an ever-deepening sea of patent-related issues 
when trying to make standards.

I guess my penchant for cute turns of phrase got the better of me :-)

                 Harald