[M4IF Discuss] RE: [M4IF News] Results M4IF Fairfax Meeting

[Dave Singer]

At 17:48 +0200 5/15/02, AVARO Olivier FTRD/DIH/REN wrote:
>  > Statements like "I believe there are still patents" without further
>>  qualification will indeed be unhelpful.
>I am not sure how statements as "I don't think there are patents" 
>really help as well and give any meaningfull level of confidence for 
>a company that want to make a real business out of it.
>
>I would be happy to pay some money to Eric if his *own* perception 
>(very valuable of course) could be instead a commitment to pay the 
>royalties for me if some IP appears on SA at a later point in time.
>

It makes no odds whether what you implement is a standard or not, or 
whether you have paid for some patent IPR or not:  you can always 
live in fear of a new patent holder appearing and demanding 
compensation.  This is part of making and shipping any product. 
Rather than live in fear, we have to assess for every product what 
the risk and gain may be, and that risk assessment can helpfully 
include the un-indemnifying statements of "those expert in the field".
-- 
David Singer
Apple Computer/QuickTime