CNET News.com: Will W3C mean dollar signs?

“But while companies do stand to profit if the new
proposal is passed, Zachmann argued that the criticism surrounding
the proposal is not so much about the revenue possibilities as it
is about the importance of intellectual property rights. Much of
the criticism of the new proposal stems from adherents of the
free-software and open-source movements, who generally oppose any
software patents.

“It isn’t likely to be some huge amounts of money here really.
It’s less a matter of huge financial opportunity that somebody will
capitalize on; it’s more of an ideological issue than a financial
issue,” Zachmann said. “The people who are against it are against
it because they’re opposed in principle. But that’s not necessarily
a position that will have a lot of pragmatic clout in the
industry,” he said.

The proposal’s authors include several major technology
companies, including Microsoft, Apple Computer and
Hewlett-Packard.”

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