license with patent grants appropriate for specifications?

[Ian Jackson]

Bob Scheifler writes ("Re: license with patent grants appropriate for specifications?"):
> So, is it reasonable to take the following approach:
>   - issue the specification itself under an existing open source license,
>     one that in and of itself does not grant any patent rights with respect
>     to implementations of the spec

Yes, that is fine as far as it goes, but of course as you recognise
the patent question must be dealt with as well:

>   - provide separately a patent-only license that grants patent rights
>     to compliant implementations of that specification (or broader if
>     one wishes)

As I wrote earlier, the patent licence must extend at least to
noncompliant Open Source derivatives of an original compliant
implementation.  Otherwise the software is not Open Source because the
community is not free to make and distribute modified versions.

Ian.