MORE PEOPLE COMING OUT AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENTS: Speaking at the Emerging Technologies Conference at M.I.T. on Wednesday, World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said that royalty-free standards are key to advancing the online world.

Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), told several hundred attendees at the MIT conference that it's "very important" that everyone involved makes sure the Web is not "tripped up by software patents."

"If you want a good laugh, go look at patent applications," he said, adding that companies seeking royalties for patents are "always a threat" to emerging technologies.