[whatwg] Video Tag Proposal

[Tab Atkins Jr.]

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 6:58 AM, Eoin Kilfeather <ekilfeather at dmc.dit.ie> wrote:
> Forgive my ignorance, I Am Not A Lawyer, but what are the consequences
> of a submarine patent on Theora and/or Vorbis? If a browser supports
> it in good faith, and subsequently a troll successfully introduces a
> patent challenge, would the consequence not be that the codec would
> simply be dropped with the next maintenance release of the browser? In
> fact a court would surely allow a reasonable time for transition. OK,
> annoying that content providers need to  re-encoded in a "legal"
> codec, but that is at least a work-flow susceptible to automation. I
> can't see a court giving financial "damages" for infringement of a
> patent which hasn't surfaced since <video> was proposed at the end of
> 2006.

Never doubt the stupidity and banality of patent judges in America.

~TJ