Patents, IETF and Network Operators

Thu Jan 21 15:35:46 UTC 2010

Hi,

Network Ops folks use the IETF standards for their operations. I see
lot of nifty things coming out from the IETF stable and i was
wondering why those dont get patented? Why bother releasing some
really good idea to IETF (i.e. open standards bodies) when the vendor
could have patented it. The network operators can still use it as long
as they are using that vendor's equipment. I understand that interop
can be an issue, since it will be a patented technology, but it will
always work between the boxes from the same vendor. If so, then whats
the issue?

Is interop the only issue because of which most ideas get released
into IETF? I guess interop is *an* issue since nobody wants a single
vendor network.

Thanks,
Abhishek