W3C figures it's resolved all the internal issues and is circulating a revised so-called Last Call Working Draft of its royalty-free patent policy.

It thinks it's simplified things.

The public now has until December 31 to stick its two cents in. W3C is making its stance explicit. It's only going to do royalty-free standards and it says anyone who participates in developing a W3C standard must agree upfront to license patents that would block interoperability on a royalty-free basis.

The W3C patent policy working group also thinks it's developed a pro-cess for resolving disputes in the event the IP isn't royalty-free - design around the patent, challenge its validity or transition the work to another standards organization that isn't so particular.

It claims IP owners retain what it calls "defensive use" of their patents; the royalty-free licensing only applies to technologies essential for implementing the W3C specifications.

WebMethods and Epicentric, both of which raised the royalty specter about SOAP 1.2, have withdrawn their objections.

W3C was originally going to have a mixed royalty-free-RAND policy until it was hit by a raft of criticism.

The next step will be to produce a final draft proposal (hopefully by February or March). W3C director Tim Berners-Lee then gets the final say. Well, in theory anyway. The consortium wants the policy in place by May. Until then W3C work will be governed by the Current Patent Practice Note, which memorializes the goal of producing royalty-free specifications but doesn't requirement a royalty-free commitment from participants to state new working groups.