Ned Freed has contributed as an IETF participant and RFC writer to a significant number of internet protocol standards... (wikipedia)
Never, in my experience, has the IETF seen such a ridiculous flap over intellectual property rights.
If they just remove the extensions from the specification, they can move forward and quickly get the document done. Otherwise, if they decide to make major changes like add color in a different way, it could be a six-month delay.
What OPES is trying to do is standardize one of the plugs that fits into the overall Web architecture.