The working group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is close to dealing with all issues which have stood in the way of completing version 1.2 of the protocol. What may be delaying the approval process are two companies who are or have been members of the XML Protocol working group. Epicentric and WebMethods have declared that they have possible patents that relate to SOAP 1.2. Although the working group's charter requires that the related technology be available for licensing on a royalty-free basis, Epicentric and WebMethods have made it clear that licensing of their patent rights over the technology would only be under "reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms. As a result, anyone seeking to use SOAP 1.2 could only do so by paying royalties. SOAP is a protocol for governing the way structured information is exchanged between two computers in a network on a peer-to-peer basis. It is likely that an ad hoc group, the patent advisory group, may need to be set up to determine a solution to the patent problem, as part of a process which may take a number of months into 2003. To read a detailed discussion, visit: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-957783.html For details on the protocol and the working group from the W3C website, visit: http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/

E-TIPS® ISSUE

02 11 21

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