[OpenID board] OpenID Foundation and Japan

[David Recordon]

Hi all,
I'm trying to bring together a few different threads of conversation  
around formalizing OpenID in Japan.  Six Apart KK, NRI, and VeriSign  
KK have been speaking for the past few months about the desire to both  
protect OpenID intellectual property in Japan as well as having an  
organization to promote and encourage adoption of OpenID via.  So far  
there seem to be a few possibilities (feel free to correct me if I'm  
wrong):
  1) Do not establish any legal entity or formal recognition of  
members of the OpenID Foundation from Japan
  2) Do not establish a legal entity in Japan but somehow recognize  
members of the OpenID Foundation from Japan
  3) Establish a legal entity in Japan which is not formally part of  
the OpenID Foundation, but is recognized like OpenID Europe Foundation
  4) Establish a legal entity in Japan which is formally a part of the  
OpenID Foundation (eg Mozilla Europe)

Obviously there are various pros and cons to each choice, though we  
should also remember that the decision here will most likely dictate  
the outcome of future similar scenarios.  I'd be especially interested  
in the views of the multi-national companies especially those also  
working with OpenID internationally.

--David