[Mono-list] patents on ISO/ECMA C#

[Jaak Simm]

I don't know whether it answers your question, but ECMA does not approve 
"recommendations of Standards which are covered by patents when such 
patents will not be licensed by their owners on a reasonable and 
non-discriminatory basis". Also ECMA has a policy in regard to patents 
that were not known during the approval of the standard. See points 
1.3.x on the page http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/MEMENTO/Code.htm

Best,
Jaak

Tom wrote:

>According to this quote in a recent ZDNET article by Microsoft's directory of
>intellectual property, any conforming implementation of ECMA/ISO C# runs afoul
>of Microsoft's patents:
>
>   According to Microsoft's director of intellectual property Michele 
>   Herman, who I interviewed earlier this year, the answer is a 
>   qualified yes. "If someone implemented a product that conforms to 
>   the specification, we believe we have a patent or one pending that's 
>   essential to implementing the specification."
>
>You can find the full article at
>
>   http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2887217,00.html
>
>Could we please have some clarity whether or not standards-conforming
>C# implementations fall under some Microsoft patent?
>  
>