[License-discuss] The ambiguous scope of the Apache License 2.0 patent grant

[Kevin P. Fleming]

On Thu, Feb 9, 2023, at 16:10, ygrex908 via License-discuss wrote:
> "where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable by
> such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their Contribution(s)
> alone or by combination of their Contribution(s) with the Work to which
> such Contribution(s) was submitted"
>
> "Combination" could mean either "the act of combining" (that would put
> it in the "narrow" group) or "something formed by combining" (that would
> imply the "wide" scope).

With the usual caveats (IANAL, just a moderately-well-informed layperson):

I don't see how 'combination' in this context could mean anything other than 'something formed by combining', because it seems nearly impossible for any patents involved to have claims which are infringed by the *act* of making the combined work. If a person produces such a combined work and never does anything with it (including 'using' it), any patents whose claims read on the content of the combined work haven't been infringed by that action.