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#title: RDF: web standard threatened by basic patent

#descr: In 1997, with priority date 1994, an obscure canadian software company
received a european patent on a basic information processing method,
namely the idea of describing information by hierarchies of binary
relations.  In 1999 a communication protocol called Ressource
Description Framework (RDF) was adopted as a web standard.  In 2001,
when some software applications gradually became available, a license
collecting company started enforcing the patent, as a first step
threatening 50 companies with infringement litigation.

#Oro: One of the first articles on the subject

#SWp: Specification of an XML based Protocol for describing Web Contents.  A
result of collaborative work of several companies, propagated by the
%{W3C} as a standard since 1999.

#AWr: A license enforcement agency which the patentee entrusted to maximise
revenues from the patent.  Pearl kept silence for several years and
then sent an extortion letter to 50 companies after the patented
method had been incoroporated into a standard.

#oWi: one of the victims

#TsW: The UDTL webserver is no longer found

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