I don't have a "legal department to challenge the patent", but in case it helps:
http://www.ninebynine.org/SWAD-E/Scenario-HomeNetwork/HomeNetworkConfig.html
This was work I did around 2002-03, and includes use of RDF technologies to set
access controls on a Cisco IOS router, which appears to correspond to the first
primary claim of the patent:
[[
1. An enforcement system for enforcing policies with regard to service requests
comprising a processor-readable, non-transient medium storing code representing
instructions that when executed at a processor cause the processor to implement:
a plurality of enforcer agents adapted to enforce policies; at least one
explorer agent adapted to evaluate policy enforcement capabilities available to
the enforcement system; and a policy decision point adapted to identify the
policies that need to be enforced for a service request and to pass this
information to at least one enforcer agent to enforce the identified policies.
]]
I recall there was also an Internet draft published about this time that talked
about using RDF in a network management control layer: see
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-atarashi-netconfmodel-architecture-00.
#g
--
On 31/07/2013 20:15, Martin Hepp wrote:
Dear all:
Yesterday, Hewlett Packard has been granted a patent on "Policy Enforcement":
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8498959.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8498959.pdf
As far as I can see, it heavily constrains the commercial exploitation of
research done in the Semantic Web / Semantic Web Services community from
2001-2009.
So if you worked on policies in the context of Semantic Web Services or
Semantic Business Process Management before November 2009, it may be worthwhile
to check whether the patent claims inventions that you can prove to have been
prior art at that time.
This may be particularly relevant for the organizers and contributors to the
various policy workshops co-located with ISWC/ESWC conferences.
I am not familiar with the legal process, but if you feel this patent claims
what was already publicly known / discussed at conferences back then, please
ask your employer or legal department to challenge the patent. It may otherwise
put the usage of SWS in business applications at risk.
Best wishes
Martin
--------------------------------------------------------
martin hepp
e-business & web science research group
universitaet der bundeswehr muenchen
e-mail: h...@ebusiness-unibw.org
phone: +49-(0)89-6004-4217
fax: +49-(0)89-6004-4620
www: http://www.unibw.de/ebusiness/ (group)
http://www.heppnetz.de/ (personal)
skype: mfhepp
twitter: mfhepp
