[MPEG-OTSPEC] Patent policy and process (was: Defining the text shaping working group’s scope)

[John Hudson]

On 15082020 10:28 am, Dave Crossland wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 11:55 AM John Hudson <john at tiro.ca 
> <mailto:john at tiro.ca>> wrote:
>
>     what we mostly want
>     institutions to do is get out of the way.
>
>
> Yet, the rubber stamping and "setting in stone" with a us patent 
> policy is necessary (but not wholly sufficient) for implementation and 
> adoption:
>
> A cycle from de facto, to de jure, to de facto.
>
> That's the essential problem with commontype.org 
> <http://commontype.org> and GitHub.com/Opentype and all the others 
> right now, it's all too de facto with no clear route to de jure.
>

I agree that having clarity over IP and a patent policy in place is 
important*, and that this is one of the attractions to collaborating 
under the auspices of an existing organisation that has such a policy 
and to which a number of participating companies and individuals may 
already be signed up.

That said, a patent policy is one of the easier things to write and 
agree on, and I think for companies currently considering whether and 
how to engage in what we’re scoping, the IP considerations will be the 
same regardless of the organisation.

So from that perspective, I think it makes most sense for us—as we scope 
the work—to also consider to what kind of process /do we/ want, 
collectively and voluntarily, to submit ourselves. How do we want to 
collaborate? And then we look at existing organisations and determine 
which, if any, provide that kind of process (and will they have us?).

JH


* Was surprised to note that UFO doesn’t appear to have a patent policy.


-- 

John Hudson
Tiro Typeworks Ltd    www.tiro.com
Salish Sea, BC        tiro at tiro.com

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