NISO Publishes White Paper on Patents and Open Standards

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Ann, I hate to send something to the list this time of year because I get
bombarded with so many automatic "I'm out of the office" notices from the
worldwide membership of the list.

This white paper is an important explanation of issues and principles. 

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: Cynthia Hodgson [mailto:chodgson@NISO.ORG]
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 2:10 PM
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Subject: NISO Publishes White Paper on Patents and Open Standards

NISO Publishes White Paper on Patents and Open Standards

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has published a
white paper on Patents and Open Standards by Priscilla Caplan, Assistant
Director of the Florida Center for Library Automation. This white paper is
a timely reminder to everyone involved in standards development of the
relationship between standards, patents, and the policies of standards
development organizations. Originally published as the feature article in
the October 2003 issue of Information Standards Quarterly, NISO is making
this important information available as a free electronic download from
its website: <http://www.niso.org/press/whitepapers/Patents_Caplan.pdf>.

The paper reviews some patent basics and then considers the following 
questions:
* What is an ?open standard??
* What are the policies of other standards setting organizations governing 
  patented contributions to standards?
* What are the implications for NISO?

The paper concludes with an update from NISO on their recently adopted
Patent Policy.

===================================================
Cynthia Hodgson
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
4733 Bethesda Avenue, Suite 300
Bethesda, MD  20814-5248
T. 301-654-2512, F. 301-654-1721
www.niso.org