[step-manufacturing] POSTECH Patents

Tue Aug 28 11:01:25 EDT 2007

Dear Prof. Suh:

Due to the new ISO/IEC/ITU Patent policy (see pdf attachment) the chairman of a technical boby has to ask at an appropriate time in EACH meeting, whether anyone has knowledge of patents, the use of which may be required to practice or implement the Deliverable (Standards) being considered. Prof. Martin Hardwick has brought up this patent issue to our attention therefore we have knowledge about patents in the ISO14649 field.

As far as I know, POSTECH has 2 granded patentfamilies (US6795749 and US7099737) and 1 published patent family (WO2005065051) in the field of ISO14649 (and perhaps other STEP-standards).

If the 3 patents (and there national/international family members) are REQUIRED to practice or implement the ISO14649 standard, POSTECH is now asked to deliver a Patent Declaradtion Form (see doc attachment) for each of the 3 patent families to ISO.

To steer the discussion of the POSTECH patents in the field of ISO14649 in the right direction (during the upcoming WG7-/T24- and SC1-plenary-meetings) it would be appropriate, if POSTECH could prepare the Patent Declaration Forms in advance of the meetings. The delivering of the 3 Patent Declaration Forms (DRAFT version!!!) in advance of the meetings would be nice but ist not obligate.

I am looking foreward to see you all in October in Frankfurt.

Kind regards
Gernot Rossi
Chairman ISO TC184 SC1

.....................................................................
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-----Original Message-----
From: Suk-Hwan Suh [mailto:shs at postech.ac.kr] 
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 6:30 AM
To: 'Martin Hardwick'; 'Mr. Proctor (NIST)'; 'Xun Xu'; 'Stroud Ian Anthony'
Cc: 'Sakamoto Chiaki'; vankhai.nguyen at etat.ge.ch; 'vitr'; 'wesche'; BRAIL, Alain A; Newman; 'Glantschnig1'; Tanaka (Hokkaido Univ); zhanjf at cnis.gov.cn; inouye at jp.fujitsu.com; 'Hascoet'; 'HENTZ Jean-Bernard'; 'HYSakamoto'; 'marchand (CETIM-Fr)'; 'Ms V.Maupin'; 'protic catherine'; Rossi, Gernot; step-manufacturing at steptools.com; bengt.olsson at sandvik.com; 'olivier(AFNOR)'; magnus.lundgren at iip.kth.se; '???'; '???'; '??'; '???'; Dimitris Kiritsis
Subject: POSTECH Patents

Dear all: 

I would like to express my opinion on the Patent issue brought up to your attention by Prof. Martin Hardwick: 

1. As Prof. Hardwick pointed out, I am the principal inventor of two patents
on STEP-NC which are related with the implementation of ISO 14649. They are
titled 1) "Method for automatically generating part program for use in
STEP-NC," (US Patent US6795749), and 2) "Intelligent STEP-NC controller,"
(US Patent US7099737). For your reference, I am attaching three papers
published in technical Journals (CAD 2003, IJCIM 2002, IJAMT 2002).

2. According to the regulation of POSTECH Academy-Industry Foundation, who
supported my research on the above technologies and is thus the owner of the
patents (which I myself have known only recently), the use of the patents
are legally allowed for non-commercial purpose such as research and
experiment, while for commercial purpose, the use of the patented technology
needs to be discussed with POTECH Academy-Industry Foundation beforehand
case by case.

3. As I explained to Prof. Hardwick earlier, I, as the Convenor of WG7, do
not have any intention to bind general implementation of the ISO 14649.  And
I truly promote any further studies on STEP-NC and potential applications by
related industries.  As Professor Xu pointed out, it is of no use if what is
patented for has little commercial potential.  However, in consideration of
the long years of our intensive research efforts, it is of my opinion that
specific technologies described in the patents and the technical journals
should be somehow protected for commercial implementations as Dr. Stroud
pointed out.   

4. The joint meeting on Oct. 1~3 in Frankfurt will provide a good chance to
discuss this matter in detail.  I welcome any opinion of yours on this
issue.   

I look forward to seeing you in October,  

P.S. Meeting schedule sent before was not properly formatted, so I am sending again as follows:

1. Meeting place: VDMA, Frankfurt, Germany 
2. Meeting schedule: Oct 1-3 
3. Agenda: 1) 2nd Ed of ISO 14649 (Part 1, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part
    111, Part 121), 2) NWIP for Machine Tool (ISO 14649 Part 110), 3) NWIP/DIS
    for EDM (ISO 14649 Part 13, Part 14),  4) NWIP for inspection, RP, Robot,
    etc., 5) Patent issues, 6) Projects, etc. 
4. Special note: October 3 is National Holiday in Germany, and VDMA will be
    closed. For the Meeting on Oct 3, Mr. Rossi, Chair of SC1, picked up a hotel
    (INNSIDE) located opposite VDMA. Pelase reserve hotel INNSIDE for Oct 3,
    required for the use of Meeting room on Oct 3. 
5. Reply requested for your attendance by "August 30."
6. For more details, please contact me, or refer to the previous e-mail for
    Call for WG7 Meeting that I sent on August 7.

Suk-Hwan Suh / Convener of ISO TC184/SC1/WG7

-----Original Message-----
From: Xun Xu [mailto:x.xu at auckland.ac.nz] 
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:07 AM
To: Stroud Ian Anthony
Cc: Martin Hardwick; Suk-Hwan Suh; Mr. Proctor (NIST); ???; ???; ??; ???; Glantschnig1; Hascoet; HENTZ Jean-Bernard; HYSakamoto; marchand (CETIM-Fr); Ms V.Maupin; protic catherine; Rossi, Gernot; Sakamoto Chiaki; vankhai.nguyen at etat.ge.ch; vitr; wesche; step-manufacturing at steptools.com
Subject: POSTECH Patent

Hi! Everyone,

This is an interesting matter. Prof. Suh's STEP-NC controller patent had 
our attention soon after it was lodged. I agree with Ian's points. 
However, I do not think the patent has an effect of suffocating the 
STEP-NC research. Nor do I think this is what Prof. Suh was intended 
for, let along that there is still so much work to do and a long long 
way ahead us before STEP manufacturing can truly take off.

Another positive spin out of this patent as far as I can see, is that it 
may send a signal to the relevant industry that STEP-NC research and the 
solutions it offers DO have commercial values (hence the patent). In 
other words, no one would lodge a patent if what is patented for has 
little commercial potetial.

Cheers
Xun

Xun W Xu (PhD)
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
School of Engineering, University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland Mail Centre
Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Tel: ++64 9 373 7599 ext. 84527, Fax: 64 9 373 7479
http://www.engineers.auckland.ac.nz/~xxu008/

-----Original Message-----
From: Stroud Ian Anthony [mailto:ian.stroud at epfl.ch] 
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 10:08 AM
To: Martin Hardwick; Suk-Hwan Suh; Mr. Proctor (NIST); ???; ???; ??; ???; Glantschnig1; Hascoet; HENTZ Jean-Bernard; HYSakamoto; marchand (CETIM-Fr); Ms V.Maupin ; protic catherine; Rossi, Gernot; Sakamoto Chiaki; Suk-Hwan SUH; vankhai.nguyen at etat.ge.ch; vitr; wesche
Cc: step-manufacturing at steptools.com
Subject: RE: Meeting schedule for WG7 and SC1 in Frankfurt/Germany

Dear Martin Hardwick and Everyone,

This is just to inform you that I intend to attend the Frankfurt 
SC1/WG7 meeting. You mentioned that Mr. Sakamoto will represent T24, 
is there any particular question that is due to be discussed?

I have a couple of comments about your mention of Professor Suh's 
patent. First of all, I think that this is now a tendency, to protect 
academic research by patents because industry has, in the past, been 
all too ready to exploit published academic research without 
reimbursing either the original researchers or the funding agencies. 
This area of Intellectual Property seems very fuzzy and patent 
applications seem a natural tool for protecting researcher's 
interests. I see what look suspiciously like my published algorithms 
in CAD systems and I certainly haven't received any royalties. More 
importantly, since academics are now evaluate, probably almost 
everywhere, the lack of credit by commercial companies is a problem. 
Forcing commercial companies to acknowledge their use of academic work 
is also important. Finally, as far as I can see, Professor Suh's 
patent is a protection for further research. It is far better that the 
patent is in the hands of one of us than in the hands of some 
commercial vendor who might limit our research. I certainly trust 
Professor Suh not to block either academic or commercial developments. 
Even if a fee is payable to cover the cost of the original patent 
application I would be able to justify a one-off payment as part of a 
project. Is this to be discussed in Frankfurt?

Best regards - Ian Stroud
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