Does a disclosure request obligate an individual to read the specification to satisfy the individuals disclosure obligation?
No. Section 6.1 of the W3C Patent Policy states: Disclosure is required when […] an individual in a Member organization receives a disclosure request as described in section 6.3; and that individual has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) with respect to the specification for which disclosure is requested. The appearance of such a disclosure request in a document status section section does not obligate any individual to read or become informed of the contents of the document. However, if a person who receives such a request is aware of claims on a technology and is, through whatever means (e.g., as a result of reading the document or having a conversation), sufficiently aware of the contents of the W3C document to believe that a claim is essential, then that person has the obligation to disclose that information. Recall also that per section 6.7, no patent search is required.
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