WAP is being aggressively marketed by the WAP Forum as an open, license-free standard for wireless Internet access. However, WAP's viability as a standard is seriously compromised by a number of software patent restrictions. These include patents held by certain members of the WAP Forum itself, most notably Phone.com and Geoworks. Patent infringement claims have already been made by the holders of the following patents:
An essential attribute of an industry protocol is that there must be no restrictions on its usage. In particular, there must be no patent restrictions on the use of the protocol. The inclusion of patents in a protocol entirely corrupts its viability as a standard. A patent provides the patent-holder with a sustained and unfair market advantage. The losers are the industry as a whole, small companies, and the consumer.
The WAP Forum members know all of this as well as anyone. They are also surely well aware of the processes that can be used to ensure a patent-free result, and of the diligence commonly exercised elsewhere in the Internet community to work towards patent-free software and protocols.
Yet in spite of this the WAP Forum has created a patented protocol. This can only be because of deliberate intentionality on the part of the WAP Forum. They have used a fraudulent process to create a protocol which includes their own patents, and which they are now attempting to foist upon the industry at large.