|
[EDI-L Mailing List Archive Home]
[Message List]
[Reply To This Message]
RE: IBM and ebXML
IBM on Thursday said it will NOT seek royalties on patented technology that
is part of an e-commerce Web standard:
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-886526.html?legacy=cnet&tag=pt.msnbc.feed..ne_
9738056
Best regards,
Colette Williams
Softshare
(805) 899-2366
www.softshare.com
-----Original Message-----
From: David Frenkel [mailto:
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 3:37 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [EDI-L] IBM and ebXML
I tried sending a hyperlink for this earlier but it did not appear to go
through. This is from ZDNET Update from April 16.
Regards,
David Frenkel
Business Development
GEFEG USA
Global Leader in Ecommerce Tools
www.gefeg.com
425-260-5030
IBM drops Internet patent bombshell
By David Berlind
April 16, 2002
A recent IBM patent claim could threaten royalty-free access to a key
Internet standard protocol backed by the United Nations. The
standard--called ebXML--is an XML-based set of definitions for
electronic transactions and business collaboration.
IBM's patent claim was made in an intellectual property disclosure filed
in late March with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS).
Executives from both the United Nations and OASIS said they expected the
ebXML specification to be royalty-free and unencumbered by patent
claims. Both said they were surprised by the sudden appearance of the
disclosure.
According to IBM's disclosure statement, the company has one patent and
one patent application that it believes are relevant to compliance with
ebXML's Collaboration Protocol Profiles (CPPs) and Collaboration
Protocol Agreements (CPAs) specifications.
The document goes on to say that IBM is offering a license on reasonable
and non-discriminatory terms (RAND) to implementers of either of the two
ebXML protocols. The RAND licensing model allows patent holders to
charge royalties for intellectual property. In contrast, a royalty-free
licensing model ensures that a protocol can be used, free of all royalty
payments, by anyone.
"ebXML as an international standard is not very useful without the CPP
and CPA specifications," said David Burdett, product manager for xCBL
and XML standards with Commerce One, a long-time supporter of the
standard. "You can't do anything but the simplest of messages."
According to Ray Walker, steering group chairman of the United Nations
Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, "We developed
ebXML under the assumption that it would be royalty-free and we are
surprised to see this come out of the woodwork at this stage." IBM's
Director for e-Business Standards Strategy Bob Sutor, said Walker,
"stood up on numerous occasions and made unequivocal statements that
IBM's contributions were being offered to ebXML without any
restrictions. So it's surprising to find out now that there is a patent
that may or may not affect this work."
The United Nations has been working with OASIS for two years to produce
a specification that addresseses the incompatibilities of electronic
documents produced by different countries.
OASIS CEO Patrick Gannon was surprised, too. According to Gannon, "Two
years ago, when IBM made its contribution--known as Trading Partner
Agreement Markup Language--to OASIS and then ebXML, no encumbrances were
identified. We are certainly surprised that claims are now being made."
When asked if the company intended to follow through on its disclosure
by issuing licenses on a RAND rather than royalty-free basis, IBM
spokesperson Angela Lee said, "When it comes to licensing, we evaluate
everything on a case-by-case basis, which is no different from any other
company in the industry. IBM participates in many standards
organizations and has complied with the rules of OASIS." IBM's Sutor was
on vacation and unavailable for comment.
Vendors building products that support the ebXML standard, meanwhile are
trying to figure what the IBM claim means to them.
"We potentially will have to pay royalty payments that we weren't
expecting to pay," said Commerce One's Burdett. "We don't know because
IBM has not made it clear. It would be unfair of IBM if they decided to
charge fees on something which was essentially the collaborative effort
of many, many people." Fujitsu, IONA, Oracle, Sun, Sybase, and
webMethods are among the companies developing ebXML support in their
solutions.
Bind Systems' CEO Colm Caffrey also assumed that the specifications
would be unencumbered by financial burdens. Bind Systems, an Dublin,
Ireland-based provider of software that bridges Web services and
business process models, is listed as an OASIS member with products that
support the ebXML standards. According to Caffrey, "There was an
understanding that there wouldn't be any royalties associated with the
technologies contributed to the ebXML specification and that includes
CPA and CPP."
Jim Boak, CTO of IONA Technologies, a provider of ebXML-compliant Web
services and application integration software, wonders whether there had
been a breakdown in communication. "I've seen IBM do this in the past,"
said Boak, "where they end up saying 'jeez, we didn't mean to do that'.
It doesn't make sense for them to spend years and years donating to
ebXML and then make it so nobody can use it."
News of IBM's claim comes on the heels of similar disclosures regarding
another set of XML-based protocols. As previously reported by ZDNet, IBM
and Microsoft have so far not released, on a royalty-free basis, their
intellectual property rights to the certain essential Web services
protocols.
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Message Identifiers: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>,
<OFF-TOPIC>
Access the list online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|
 |
Subscribe in XML format
| RSS 2.0 |
|
| Atom 0.3 |
|
|
Cart
