[cabfpub] Entrust/IPR policy explained

[Tim Moses]

Colleagues - As you all know, we are one of many companies that decided not to continue with the CAB Forum after a radical change was made to the nature of the organization with the introduction of a mandatory IPR many years after the Forum was originally created.

We did not agree with the IPR for three reasons:

  *   The presumption that innovation protected by patents - but not other IP -- should be free.  Unlike many members of the forum, we have spent significant sums to create a substantial patent portfolio related to certificate management and saw the IPR policy as a coercive  attempt to decrease significantly the value of that portfolio
  *   The administrative requirement to maintain our portfolio exempt from the royalty free licensing provisions of the IPR would be burdensome for a small company with a large relevant portfolio
  *   The provision in the IPR requiring us to bind all our related companies would require us to bind portfolio companies of our owner in unrelated businesses, and that is particularly problematic for privately-held portfolio companies.

Many members had similar or other reasons for not signing up to the IPR policy and we understand that about 40% of the membership has withdrawn.  We made a sound business judgment that it did not work for us and were not alone in that decision.

Unfortunately, we are aware that a few remaining forum members have inaccurately described both our motives for leaving the Forum and our resulting ability to provide standards compliant solutions.  We are disappointed with this tactic and will pursue any means necessary to protect our reputation and business.

We left the Forum because the IPR policy was problematic and compromise could not be found.  Should the IPR be withdrawn or revised to meet our concerns we would rejoin the group.  We do see value in the Forum and have devoted significant energy to the Forum in the past.  Otherwise, we intend to remain involved in progressing browser security through different less adversarial avenues and industry associations.

Best regards.  Tim.

T: +1 613 270 3183

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