The article reports that the IETF working group will assess the impact of patent, copyright and trademark claims on its ability to develop standards, with a view to providing guidance to its members on the use of proprietary software in the standard-setting process. The group aims to publish its intellectual property policy by the beginning of 2003.
It appears that IETF will follow moves made by other standards bodies, such as the World Wide Web Consortium, to allow the use of proprietary software in standards under certain circumstances.