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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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<title>Ad Hoc Meeting on US Patent 5,838,906</title>
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<h1>W3C Holds Ad Hoc Meeting on Recent Court Decision, Launches Public
Discussion List</h1>
<p>By now, most of those reading this know of the recent court case of
Eolas v. Microsoft in regards to US Patent 5,838,906. The patent claims
to cover mechanisms for embedding objects within distributed hypermedia
documents, where at least some of the object's data is located external
to the document, and there is a control path to the object's
implementation to support user interaction with the object. The
implementation can be local or distributed across a network, and is
automatically invoked based upon type information in the document or
associated with the object's data. See the patent claims for details
and for the precise scope of the patent. This patent may potentially
have implications for the World Wide Web in general, including
specifications from W3C.</p>
<p>In the near term, Microsoft has indicated to W3C that they will very
soon be making changes to its Internet Explorer browser software in
response to this ruling. These changes may affect a large number of
existing Web pages. W3C does not yet have any indication of what
action, if any, other vendors of Web tools might take. In the longer
term, should the court decision be upheld in its current form, some
participants suggested that other action might be required. W3C has
made efforts to contact the patent holder to determine their future
intentions, but has not received any reply.</p>
<p>W3C believes that it is important for the Web community to begin now
to consider and contribute to the range of technical options
available.</p>
<p>As a result, W3C invited its Members as well as other key commercial
and open source software interests to attend an ad hoc meeting, hosted
by Macromedia, on Tuesday 19 August in San Francisco, California. The
objective of the meeting was to begin to evaluate potential near-term
changes that might be implemented in browsers, authoring tools, and Web
sites as a result of the court case.</p>
<p>There was widespread agreement that a solution that minimizes the
effects of changes to Web software, Web sites and the user experience
was needed. Microsoft presented several options that it has under
consideration, and benefited from constructive discussion of these
options. In addition, the meeting participants strongly supported clear
communication on this matter, including establishing a developer Web
site and mailing list to coordinate approaches for changes to Web sites
and software, and providing early releases of software and
documentation. Further details on these will be forthcoming.</p>
<p>To enable the Web community to consider and contribute to the
technical options, W3C has created a mailing list for public discussion
on this subject, <a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-plugins/">public-web-plugins@w3.org</a>.
W3C is preparing a FAQ for public distribution, and has already
initiated consideration of longer-term, standards-based solutions.</p>
<p>Please note that W3C has not completed any formal analysis of the
patent in question or the impact of the federal court opinion. W3C is
not providing any legal advice to our Members or the public on the
direct impact of recent developments, nor are we, by holding the
meeting this past week, intending any implication about validity or
applicability of the patent. Those implementing technologies in this
arena will have to seek their own legal counsel on particular
implementations of W3C Recommendations.</p>
<p>W3C will continue to coordinate with the Web software vendors and
organizations, and keep our Members and the public informed as these
efforts progress.</p>
<hr />
<address><a href="mailto:steve@w3.org">Steven R Bratt</a>, Chief
Operating Officer<br />
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)<br />
Last updated: $Date: 2003/08/27 18:32:09 $</address>
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