Consortia or Consensus?

Intellectual Property Rights Policies of selected standards developers Compiled by GTW Associates May, 2002
Standards Body	Policy	Guidelines	Claims info and Database	IPR covered	Principle	Baseline IPR statement
ANSI	1.2.11 ANSI patent policy - Inclusion of Patents in American National Standards Also duplicated below	Guidelines for Implementation of the ANSI Patent Policy An Aid to More Efficient and Effective Standards Development In Fields That May Involve Patented Technology	A record of the patent holder’s statement shall be placed and retained in the files of the Institute. When the Institute receives from a patent holder the assurance set forth in 1.2.11.1 a) or b), the standard shall include a note No data base	If the Institute receives a notice that a proposed American National Standard may require the use of a patented invention	There is no objection in principle to drafting a proposed American National Standard in terms that include the use of a patented item, if it is considered that technical reasons justify this approach.	Reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination
ATM Forum	Article 3.1 ATM Forum Bylaws		Record of Statements Holder. A record of all claims of intellectual property rights and of any rights holders' statements with regard to any assurance requested or given shall be placed and retained in the files of the Corporation and made available to the members. Database	When a member holds or anticipates holding patent rights, the use of which would be required to implement all or part of an approved or a proposed Corporation specification	There is no objection in principal to drafting a proposed specification in terms that include the use of a patented item if it is considered that technical reasons justify this approach	written assurance that it will grant licenses on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions to use the existing or anticipated patent right to the extent required to implement such specification or a part thereof for use in an implementation of such specification
BSI	BRITISH STANDARD BS 0-1:1997 A standard for standards — Part 1: Guide to the context, aims and general principles Article 8.6 Part 3: Specification for structure, draft and presentation Article 9.4	BRITISH STANDARD BS 0-1:1997 A standard for standards — Part 1: Guide to the context, aims and general principles Article 8.6 Part 3: Specification for structure, draft and presentation Article 9.4	BSI should keep a formal record signed by the patent holder of the agreement to grant such licences. 9.4.1 If a patented invention is to be included as the sole means of compliance with a standard and the technical committee is satisfied regarding the patent and its endorsement “licences of right” or, in the case of a pending application, equivalent pre-grant terms. the follwoing note shall be included at the appropriate point in the standard	a) to the endorsement “licences of right” for a British patent; or b) to terms required for a foreign patent. A technical committee should, if necessary, warn an intending applicant for a patent that, except under strict conditions on which a patent agent could advise, early disclosure of the essential details of an invention, even within a BSI committee, may invalidate any subsequent application for a patent.	8.6.6.1 Inclusion of a proprietary material, product or process as the sole means of compliance with any of the requirements of a British Standard should be avoided unless the technical committee has established that there is no satisfactory alternative available. 8.6.6.4 If a technical committee finds that a proposed solution is the subject of an application for a patent, or that such an application is intended, it should inform the applicant of the undesirability of using a patented invention in a standard. If the applicant nevertheless decides to proceed and the technical committee considers that no satisfactory alternative is available, the applicant’s agreement should be obtained: If a technical committee wishes to include an invention subject to such a patent as a requirement of a British Standard... Voluntary adoption of an international standard is made more complex by any need to use articles covered by foreign patents on account of the discrepancies between UK and international patent law. 8.6.6.3 When a standard is being reviewed or revised that includes a patented invention, BSI Legal Services should be asked to check the position regarding the patent, particularly how long the patent has to run.	BSI and the owner of the patent should agree on the terms under which the patented invention is to be included. These are normally that licences will be granted to all applicants (from whatever country) on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms . If a technical committee decides that the inclusion of an invention that is the subject of a British patent is essential as a requirement of a British Standard, BSI Legal Services should be asked to confirm or secure that the patent is endorsed “licences of right” at the Patent Office. This ensures that: a) licences under the patent are available to all applicants as of right; b) any disagreement as to terms between the owner of the patent and a person requiring a licence is subject to settlement by the Comptroller of the Patent Office
CEN and CENELEC	CEN/CENELEC Guide 8 1992 Standardization and Intellectual Property rights	CEN/CENELEC Guide 8 1992 Standardization and Intellectual Property rights	A record on a patent holder's statement shall be placed in the files of CEN or CENELEC (as appropriate) and shall be referred to in the relevant European Standard. No database	originator of a proposal of such a kind shall draw attention to any known patent and like rights on a worldwide basis or any known pending applications	Standardization is intended to put ideas into the public domain, whereas protection of IPR makes them private property. Therefore, any use of IPR by a standard is an anomaly, sometimes an unavoidable one, which needs careful management	licences under patent and like rights with applicants throughout the world on reasonable terms and conditions
DIN	5.9: DIN 820 Part 1 "Standards work - Principles"		This shall be indicated by way of a preliminary note in the standard concerned	existing proprietary rights	"Standards shall not deal with subjects that are covered by proprietary rights. If, in exceptional cases, it is unavoidable that existing proprietary rights are affected by a standard	an agreement shall be reached with the holders of such rights that is consistent with the general interest (e.g. granting of licences on suitable terms).
ECMA	Code of conduct in Patent Matters	See also Article 4.1 Bylaws And Article 3 ECMA rules	Each draft standard shall be submitted two months ahead of a General Assembly, by registered mail. All members are required to state no less than two weeks before the GA or at the end of the postal voting period whether they claim any issued protective rights covering the subject matter of the proposed standard and/or have knowledge of such rights of third parties. 2.3 Replies to this request will be circulated in due time before the General Assembly. 2.4 When an answer is not received from a Company, the General Assembly may proceed to a vote on the assumption that this Company will act in accordance with the General Declaration, that is to license possible relevant issued patents on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis.	In case the proposed Standard is covered by issued patents of ECMA members only: Members of the General Assembly are asked to state the Company licensing policy with respect to these patents. Each member of the TCs and/or of the General Assembly of ECMA will determine whether any proposed standard may be covered by any patent for which his company has a pending application; if such a patent application exists, his continued participation to the relevant committee will imply that such a patent, when obtained later, will be made available from his company for licensing on a reasonable, non-discriminatory basis. 1.3.2 Each member of the TCs and/or of the General Assembly of ECMA will determine whether any proposed standard may be covered by any patent for which his company has a pending application; if such a patent application exists, the favourable vote of the Company to the General Assembly will imply that such a patent, when obtained later, will be made available from his company for licensing on a reasonable, non-discriminatory basis.	The General Assembly of ECMA shall not approve recommendations of Standards which are covered by patents when such patents will not be licensed by their owners on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis.	prepared to grant licences on a reasonable, non-discriminatory basis
ETSI	ETSI Intellectual Property Rights Policy	The Technical Body Chairman’s Guide to IPR	Any published STANDARD or TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION shall include information pertaining to ESSENTIAL IPRs which are brought to the attention of ETSI prior to such publication. ETSI shall establish appropriate procedures to allow access to information at any time with respect to ESSENTIAL IPRs which have been brought to the attention of ETSI. Database	Each MEMBER shall use its reasonable endeavours to timely inform ETSI of ESSENTIAL IPRs it becomes aware of	ETSI IPR POLICY seeks to reduce the risk to ETSI, MEMBERS, and others applying ETSI STANDARDS and TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS, that investment in the preparation, adoption and application of STANDARDS could be wasted as a result of an ESSENTIAL IPR for a STANDARD or TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION being unavailable. In achieving this objective, the ETSI IPR POLICY seeks a balance between the needs of standardization for public use in the field of telecommunications and the rights of the owners of IPRs	give within three months an undertaking in writing that it is prepared to grant irrevocable licences on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions under such IPR to at least the following extent: MANUFACTURE, including the right to make or have made customized components and sub-systems to the licensee's own design for use in MANUFACTURE; sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of EQUIPMENT so MANUFACTURED; repair, use, or operate EQUIPMENT; and use METHODS. The above undertaking may be made subject to the condition that those who seek licences agree to reciprocate.
IEEE	Article 6 Patents IEEE-SA Standards Board Bylaws	Article 6 IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual	Database of claims	IEEE standards may include the known use of patent(s), including patent applications, provided the IEEE receives assurance from the patent holder or applicant with respect to patents essential for compliance with both mandatory and optional portions of the standard	IEEE standards may include the known use of patent(s), including patent applications	without compensation or under reasonable rates, with reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination
IETF	Chapter 10 IETF The Internet Standards Process RFC 2026 and Direct link See also RFC 3184 IETF Guidelines for Conduct		database	it is necessary to understand any intellectual property rights (IPR) relating to the contributions. The contributor represents that he has disclosed the existence of any proprietary or intellectual property rights in the contribution that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor.	In all matters of intellectual property rights and procedures, the intention is to benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of others From Code of Conduct IETF participants use their best engineering judgment to find the best solution for the whole Internet, not just the best solution for any particular network, technology, vendor, or user. We follow the intellectual property guidelines	shall attempt to obtain from the claimant of such rights, a written assurance that upon approval by the IESG of the relevant Internet standards track specification(s), anyparty will be able to obtain the right to implement, use and distribute the technology or works when implementing, using or distributing technology based upon the specific specification(s) under openly specified, reasonable, non-discriminatory terms
ISO And IEC And ISO/IEC JTC1	For ISO server Aticle 2.14 ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 Rules for the structure and drafting of International Standards 4^th edition 2001 For IEC version Article 2.14 ISO/IEC Directives Also text duplicated below And For ISO server Annex H ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 Rules for the structure and drafting of International Standards 4^th edition 2001 for IEC server Annex H ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 Rules for the structure and drafting of International Standards 4^th edition 2001 Also duplicated below		published document for which no patent rights are identified during the preparation thereof, shall contain the following notice	Any party involved in the preparation of a document shall draw the attention of the committee to any patent rights of which it becomes aware during any stage in the development of the document. The originator of a proposal for a document shall draw the attention of the committee to any patent rights of which the originator is aware and considers to cover any item of the proposal.	If, in exceptional situations, technical reasons justify such a step, there is no objection in principle to preparing an International Standard in terms which include the use of items covered by patent rights – defined as patents, utility models and other statutory rights based on inventions, including any published applications for any of the foregoing	willing to negotiate worldwide licences under his rights with applicants throughout the world on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
ITU	ITU-T Patent_Policy	ITU-T Readme	Standard form of disclosure Database of claims	any known patent or to any known pending patent application position on copyrights under consideration	a commercial (monopolistic) abuse by a holder of a patent embodied fully or partly in a Recommendation must be excluded. To meet this requirement in general is the sole objective of the code of practice.	willing to negotiate licenses with other parties on a non-discriminatory basis on reasonable terms and conditions
J Consortium, Inc	IPR policy	JConsortiumTechnical Committee Organization Rules and Procedures	When patents have been identified for draft specifications subject to public comment, and final published specifications, the following notice shall be included in the introduction In this respect, the statement of the holder of this patent right is registered with J Consortium. No database	information on potentially pertinent patents shall be made to the J CONSORTIUM Subgroup members and J CONSORTIUM simultaneously. The call shall also encourage disclosure, where possible, of the existence of pending U.S. patent applications relating to the specification under development, and of any relevant unexpired foreign patents	This policy covers the IPR for specifications created by the J CONSORTIUM.	License the patented technology under reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of unfair discrimination
JEDEC	JEDEC_Patent_Policy_ and Section 7 Legal Requirements JEDEC Manual of Organization and Procedure February 1999	Section 7 Legal Requirements JEDEC Manual of Organization and Procedure February 1999	All correspondence between the patent holder and the formulating committee 5 , including a copy of the written assurance from the patent holder discussed above, shall be transmitted to the JEDEC office and the EIA Legal Counsel at the earliest possible time and, in any case, before the standard is otherwise ready for committee ballot circulation; cautionary language in standard; No database of claims	known patents and patent applications that are or may be relevant to the work of the formulating committee. This duty extends to the patent owner and any other participant on the formulating committee with knowledge of the patent or patent application.	JEDEC standards that require the use of patented items should be considered with great care. While there is no restriction against drafting a proposed standard in terms that include the use of a patented 13 item if technical reasons justify the inclusion, committees should avoid standardization that refers to a product on which there is a known patent unless all the relevant technical information covered by the patent is known to the formulating committee, subcommittee, or task group.	license will be made available to applicants desiring to implement the standard either without compensation or under reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination.
OAsis	OASIS Policy on Intellectual Property Rights and Oasis-Bylaws	OASIS technical committee Guidelines	IPR claims are noted on the TC page see for example claim of patent holder "OASIS has been notified of intellectual property rights claimed in regard to some or all of the contents of this specification. For more information consult the online list of claimed rights." Where any patents, patent applications, or other proprietary rights are known, or claimed, with respect to any specification developed within the OASIS process, and are formally brought to the attention of the OASIS Board of Directors, the OASIS Board of Directors shall not advance the specification without including in the document a note indicating the existence of such rights, or claimed rights	The contributor represents that he has disclosed the existence of any proprietary or intellectual property rights in the contribution that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor Where any patents, patent applications, or other proprietary rights are known, or claimed, with respect to any specification developed within the OASIS process	In all matters of intellectual property rights and procedures, the intention is to benefit the public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of others All legal encumbrances (copyright, patent, etc.) should be identified so that the OASIS Board of Directors have the opportunity to decide whether this work can be sent to the OASIS membership. OASIS may not want to recommend to its members a work that has questionable or hidden legal encumbrances, and OASIS members have the right to full knowledge about a specification before they vote to accept it..	openly specified, reasonable, non-discriminatory terms
Object Management Group (OMG)	Article 2.3 Commercial Considerations in OMG Technology adoption	Appendix B11 Object management Group Architecture Guide and Section A2.3 OMG Process Details	If the submitter owns IPR to which an use of a specification or support measure based upon its submission would necessarily be subject, it must certify to the Business Committee that it will make a suitable license available to any user on non-discriminatory and commercially reasonable terms, to permit development and commercialisation of an implementation that includes such IPR.	OMG will not adopt a specification or support measure if OMG is aware of any submitter, member or third party which holds a patent, copyright or other intellectual property right (collectively referred to in this policy statement as "IPR")	It is the goal of the OMG to make all of its specifications available with as few impediments and disincentives to adoption as possible	OMG will not adopt a specification if OMG is aware of any submitter, member or third party which holds a patent, copyright or other intellectual property right (collectively referred to in this policy statement as "IPR") which might be infringed by implementation of such specification, unless OMG believes that such IPR owner will grant a license to implementers (whether OMG members or not) on non-discriminatory and commercially reasonable terms
OpenGroup	The Open Group Tehnical Procedures 11 Interface Adoption Criteria		An assurance that a person developing a product in accordance with the standard is immune from any liability to the contributor of the material in respect of the use by him or his customers of such material, other than through failure to properly license predisclosed patents. The erms to be such that The Open Group will not be inhibited in its efforts to secure acceptance by international standards bodies.	copyright holder of the material If the interfaces to be adopted are covered by patents	it is recognised that some constraints, such as licenses and/or patents, may not be known at the time of submission and The Open Group can provide no immunity from legal action to any company utilising the specifications.	A permanent royalty free copyright license from the copyright holder of the material for The Open Group to use and publish patents must be licensed by their owners on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis.
PICMG-PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group, Inc	XII Intellectual Property Byalws	See on web site letter will disclose the MCG patents relevant to the CSMB specification and another letter will state that Motorola will license the patented technology to all members of PICMG in a reasonable and fair nondiscriminatory fashion		It is the good faith objective of the Corporation (i) to make any Technology which may be developed available as soon as its development and adoption by the Corporation is complete to all Members who have not participated in the development or determination of such Technology as well as to all those who have participated on the same terms, and (ii) to make all such Technology available at the same point in time to all Members, and (iii) to make all such Technology available to all non-Members on fair and reasonable terms and conditions. .	All intellectual property, specifications, guidelines and any other technology or assets (collectively, "Technology") developed by the Corporation, whether developed by employees of the Corporation alone or with the assistance of employees or consultants of any Member(s), shall become the sole property of the Corporation, unless otherwise determined pursuant to such rules as the Board of Directors may adopt from time to time. Without limitation, such rules may control all rights of publication relating to the Technology, the ownership of such Technology, the license rights which Members may be entitled to therein, and the fees (if any) which the Corporation may charge Members for access to such Technology.	All intellectual property, specifications, guidelines and any other technology or assets (collectively, "Technology") developed by the Corporation, whether developed by employees of the Corporation alone or with the assistance of employees or consultants of any Member(s), shall become the sole property of the Corporation However see disclosure column
PKI	Section 2.7 e Bylaws		In the case of those Members submitting a PKI Forum Work Item for adoption, such Members shall execute such written agreement confirming the agreements made by the Member in this Section as the Executive Board may from time to time require.	By submitting a PKI Forum Work Item to the PKI Forum, a Member agrees that if a specification or amendment incorporates such PKI Forum Work, then (i) such Member will license all patented technology and other intellectual property rights which are owned by it and which might be infringed by the specification or amendment in question without compensation or (ii) such Member will license all patented technology and other intellectual property rights which are owned by it and which might be infringed by the implementation of the specification or amendment in question under reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of unfair discrimination;	By contributing a Contributed Work Item to the PKI Forum, each Member warrants to the best of its knowledge that it shall own any Contributed Work Item at the time it is contributed to PKI Forum or have sufficient rights in such Contributed Work Item to ensure that it is able to make such contribution.	reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of unfair discrimination;
Rosettanet	Bylaws and Intellectual Property rights policy		Any RosettaNet specification that includes such a royalty-bearing contribution will be clearly labeled accordingly, and a description of license terms will be included with the specification.	intellectual property which a participant in a working group contributes to RosettaNet in connection with a RosettaNet specification development effort	This Policy is the complete and exclusive statement of RosettaNet’s intellectual property policy, and applies to and governs all RosettaNet-related activity and all RosettaNet members moving forward.	contributor agrees that it will grant to any third party implementing such specification, on royalty-free and otherwise reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, a non-exclusive, non-transferable, world-wide license under any Necessary Claim that reads on such contribution If a RosettaNet member, which has not already formally joined a particular working group, believes that a potential contribution would significantly advance the efforts of that working group but is unwilling to contribute in accordance with this Policy…. the member offers the contribution to all RosettaNet users on reasonable and non-discriminatory license terms.
Salutation Consortium	13.4.1 Bylaws		Member owning the same agrees to grant, upon request, a worldwide, non-exclusive license for the life of the Licensable Patent to the Consortium, other Members and non-members, on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions.	In the event that a Member owns, now or hereafter, any patent or patent application covering technology relating to the Scope of the Consortium (as defined in Section 1.3, but excluding any Product functions themselves not related to capabilities access, capabilities exchange and/or Product interoperability) that directly enables any implementation of any Specification adopted at any time by the Board of Directors (the "Licensable Patent"),	Inventions made in the development work of the Technology and patent rights thereon rest in the Member(s) who make(s) such inventions. In the case where inventions are made jointly, the rights thereon are jointly owned by the Members who made such joint inventions, and each joint owner may practice and may license a third party to practice such jointly made inventions without accounting to the other Member(s)	Member owning the same agrees to grant, upon request, a worldwide, non-exclusive license for the life of the Licensable Patent to the Consortium, other Members and non-members, on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
SCC	Article 5.8 CAN-P-1D Accreditation of Standards-Development Organizations	Anex2 CAN-P-1D Accreditation of Standards-Development Organizations	A record of the right holder's statement shall be placed in the registry of the (SDO) head office, and shall be referred to in the introduction to the relevant Canadian standard If the right holder does not provide such a statement, the committee concerned shall not proceed with inclusion of an item covered by a patent right in the Canadian standard without authorization from (SDO)	which include the use of items covered by patent rights - defined as patents,utility models and other statutory rights based on inventions, including any published applications for any of the foregoing - even if the terms of the standard are such that there are no alternative means ofcompliance	If, in exceptional situations, technical reasons justify such a step, there is no objection in principle to preparing a Standard in terms which include the use of items covered by patent rights	Standards should not be drafted in terms that include the use of a patented item unless the use of such an item is justifiable for technical reasons, and the rights holder agrees to negotiate licences with interested applicants, wherever located, on reasonable terms and conditions.
SCTE	Article 5.7 Manual of Organization and Procedure for the Standards Program of the Engineering Committee The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) October 16, 2001		database standard form of declaration	incumbent on members in the SCTE standards process to immediately notify the SCTE Secretariat if they hold, believe they hold, or believe someone else holds a patent or patents which are essential in implementing a standard.	There is no objection in principle to drafting an SCTE standard in terms that include the use of a patented item, if it is considered that technical reasons justify this approach.	Assurance that a license will be made available to applicants under reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination.
SDR Forum (Software Defined Radio Forum)	4.8.3. SDR Forum's Patent Policy		Prior to approval, adoption and/or publication of such a proposed standard, the Forum shall receive from the patent holder either a written statement If the patent holder chooses to proceed under Section 4.8.3.a. (2), the patent holder shall also submit the following information to the Forum and its Counsel for their review: (a) the terms and conditions of the proposed license, and (b) information regarding the number of independent licensees, if any, who at the time such statement is submitted, have accepted or indicated their acceptance of such license on those same terms and conditions. The statement, including the terms and conditions and the number of independent licensees, shall be kept in confidence pending review by the Forum and its counsel. Upon publication or adoption of the standard to which the statement applies, the Forum shall no longer be required to keep the statement confidential. A record of the patent holder's statement shall be placed and retained in the files of the Forum. If the Forum decides to adopt and/or publish the standard to which the statement applies, the Forum shall make such statement available to those who request review. 4.8.3.c. Notice When the Forum receives from a patent holder the assurance set forth in/4.8.3.a.(1) or 4.8.3.a.(2), the standard shall include a note	If the Forum decides or receives notice that the proposed standard will require the use of an invention covered by an unexpired patent, and whose patent registration number is given in the notice	The contributor represents that he has disclosed the existence of any proprietary or intellectual property rights in the contribution that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor	a license will be made available to applicants under reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination.
T1	Article 14 Patent Policy Accredited Standards Committee Telecommunications Procedures Manual		A record of the patent holder's statement shall be placed and retained in the files of the Institute.	include the use of a patented item,	There is no objection in principle to drafting a proposed American National Standard in terms that include the use of a patented item, if it is considered that technical reasons justify this approach.	Committee T1 has adopted the ANSI Patent Policy from ANSI publication: Procedures for the Development and Coordination of American National Standards, copyright March 1997. (although current edition is 2001) A license will be made available to applicants under reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination.
The Global Platform Organization	Article III Bylaws and IPR procedure and IPR policy	21 pages		All intellectual property, specifications, guidelines and any other technology, publications or assets (collectively, "Technology") including, without limitation, any of the same which may be represented by any standards and specifications which may from time to time be submitted to or adopted by the Company, shall be subject to such polices and procedures as may from time to time be adopted by the Board of Directors	Intended to balance several competing interests as well as well as to be in the range of current practice for other industry consortia and standards setting groups	reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination.
TIA	Patent Policy TIA Engineering Manual		a record of the patent holder's statement shall be placed and retained in the files of TIA and TIA Publication shall include a note Database	When an Essential Patent has been identified in any proposed TIA Publication	There is no objection in principle to drafting a TIA Publication in terms that include the use of a patented item, if it is considered that technical reasons justify this approach	A license under any Essential Patent(s) or published pending patent application(s) held by the undersigned company will be made available under reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination to applicants only and to the extent necessary for the practice of the TIA Publication
W3C	2.2 W3C IPR policy current Patent practice Draft royalty free policy	Patent Policy working group home page and frequently asked questions	To disclose patent and IPR claims, individuals must send email to patent-issues@w3.org, which is an archived mailing list readable by Members and the Team. Claims and statements of intenton to license posted to technical committee web sites for example	patent and IPR claims	W3C believes it is necessary to adopt a more comprehensive policy and process for addressing the relationship between the open technical recommendations developed by W3C and patent rights held by W3C Members and others. In developing a new Patent Policy for W3C activities, our goal is to affirm the Web community's long-standing preference for recommendations that can be implemented on an RF basis. Where that is not possible, the new Policy will provide a framework to assure maximum possible openness based on RAND licensing terms.	This current practice has evolved in order to satisfy the goal held by a number of W3C Members and significant parts of the larger Web community: that W3C Recommendations should be, as far as possible, implementable on a RoyaltyFree basis [AC]. The current practice described here seeks to establish Royalty-Free implementation as a goal for Recommendations produced by new and re-chartered Working Groups; encourage maximum disclosure of patents that might prevent a W3C Recommendation from being implemented on a Royalty-Free basis; provide a process for addressing situations in which the goal of Royalty-Free implementation may not be attainable.

2.14.1 If, in exceptional situations, technical reasons justify such a step, there is no objection in principle to preparing an International Standard in terms which include the use of items covered by patent rights – defined as patents, utility models and other statutory rights based on inventions, including any published applications for any of the foregoing – even if the terms of the standard are such that there are no alternative means of compliance. The rules given below and in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, 2001, Annex H shall be applied.

2.14.2 If technical reasons justify the preparation of a document in terms which include the use of items covered by patent rights, the following procedures shall be complied with.

2.14.3 Should it be revealed after publication of a document that licences under patent rights, which appear to cover items included in the document, cannot be obtained under reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions, the document shall be referred back to the relevant committee for further consideration

H.1 All drafts submitted for comment shall include on the cover page the following text: “Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are aware and to provide supporting documentation.”

H.2 A published document for which no patent rights are identified during the preparation thereof, shall contain the following notice in the foreword:

“Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO [and/or] IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.”

H.3 A published document for which patent rights have been identified during the preparation thereof, shall include the following notice in the introduction: “The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) [and/or] International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) draws attention to the fact that it is claimed that compliance with this document may involve the use of a patent concerning (…subject matter…) given in …subclause…). ISO [and/or] IEC take[s] no position concerning the evidence, validity and scope of this patent right. The holder of this patent right has assured the ISO [and/or] IEC that he/she is willing to negotiate licences under reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions with

applicants throughout the world. In this respect, the statement of the holder of this patent right is registered with ISO [and/or] IEC. Information may be obtained from:

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights other than those identified above. ISO [and/or] IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.”

There is no objection in principle to drafting a proposed American National Standard in terms that include the use of a patented item, if it is considered that technical reasons justify this approach.

If the Institute receives a notice that a proposed American National Standard may require the use of a patented invention, the procedures in 1.2.11.1 through 1.2.11.4 shall be followed.

Prior to approval of such a proposed American National Standard, the Institute shall receive from the identified party or patent holder (in a form approved by the Institute) either: assurance in the form of a general disclaimer to the effect that such party does not hold and does not currently intend holding any invention the use of which would be required for compliance with the proposed American National Standard or assurance that:

A record of the patent holder’s statement shall be placed and retained in the files of the Institute.

When the Institute receives from a patent holder the assurance set forth in 1.2.11.1 a) or b), the standard shall include a note as follows:

NOTE – The user’s attention is called to the possibility that compliance with this standard may require use of an invention covered by patent rights.

By publication of this standard, no position is taken with respect to the validity of this claim or of any patent rights in connection therewith. The patent holder has, however, filed a statement of willingness to grant a license under these rights on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions to applicants desiring to obtain such a license. Details may be obtained from the standards developer.

The Institute shall not be responsible for identifying all patents for which a license may be required by an American National Standard or for conducting inquiries into the legal validity or scope of those patents that are brought to its attention.

About the Author: George T. Willingmyre, P.E. is President of GTW Associates, a consulting firm specializing in international trade, standards policy and conformity assessment matters. Previously, Mr. Willingmyre was Vice President of Washington Operations for the American National Standards Institute. Willingmyre was involved in the public and private sector resolution of the early 1990s IPR ETSI IPR Undertaking controversy and advancing private sector views to the government negotiations of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. Willingmyre current participates in the ANSI Patent Group, the ITU/T Directors ad hoc group on IPR; the IETF poised policy discussion list and served for 2 years on the W3C patent group. GTW Associates clients include Microsoft Corporation; DaimlerChrysler; European Commission; OECD, the Japan METI and various law firms involved in patent/IPR litigation.