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

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

ECMA

Code of conduct in Patent Matters

See also  Article 4.1 Bylaws

And 

Article 3 ECMA rules

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.

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

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.

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

ISO

And

IEC

And

ISO/IEC JTC1

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

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