The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is investigating the status of a patent claim which threatens open access to a privacy protection technology known as the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P). The P3P design tells users about web sites’ privacy practices and lets them to control what information they disclose to a site, as well as how that data may be used. So far, so friendly. But Intermind Corp has been awarded a US patent covering the transfer of metadata. The company – which, incredibly enough, is a W3C member – has informed the Consortium that W3C metadata standards in general and P3P in particular may infringe upon its patent.
The W3C has called on the web community for assistance in locating prior art, software whose existence predates the patent. If prior art can be proved, Intermind has no case. There are growing incompatibilities between patents and open standards, observed Daniel Weitzner, technology and security domain leader of the W3C. The trend towards filing patents in areas where standards are already underway is cause for both concern and action. The web developer communities can be instrumental in providing the evidence required to render questionable patents invalid, thereby maintaining and open web. á
