Author: JT Smith
Reported at The Register :”Senior IBM server executives were horrified to learn yesterday that W3C standards
may not in the future be royalty-free. Internet standards and Linux have helped IBM
widen its appeal in recent years, and the company has pledged $1 billion on
developing and marketing Linux. But its continued investment depends on good will
from the Linux developer community, and that may well be imperilled by its
preference of RAND to royalty-free for the most fundamental WWW standards.
may not in the future be royalty-free. Internet standards and Linux have helped IBM
widen its appeal in recent years, and the company has pledged $1 billion on
developing and marketing Linux. But its continued investment depends on good will
from the Linux developer community, and that may well be imperilled by its
preference of RAND to royalty-free for the most fundamental WWW standards.
IBM holds over 34,000 patents and gains over $1 billion in royalties annually from
its patent portfolio.”
