The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has informed its members that their new Widget Update specification is being delayed because Apple believes it holds the patent for the technique it uses for automatic updates.
The patent in question was filed way back in 1995 and was finally awarded in 1998. The odd part is that Apple is actually a member of the W3C and the membership policies indicate that those within the standards group are required to offer their patents for free. So far, Apple refuses to allow this.
Because Apple has refused to allow their patent to be used royalty-free, the W3C has organized a Patent Advisory Group to check if the widget update process does in fact use any of the techniques covered in Apple's patent. If they find that the Widget Update specification does use any of the techniques and Apple still refuses to budge, they will have to find a workaround.
Apple has remained silent as to why they are opposing the use of their patent so fervently. It could be that Apple is just being stubborn as usual, or there may be a few details that we are all unaware of.
Business is business, but if Apple has a valid reason for not allowing their patent to be used, they should come clean. Apple always ends up looking like the bad guy when they keep everyone in the dark.
[via AppleInsider]
