Patents, Copyright and Confidentiality - Policy Statement

In this section we define a set of policies and procedures which ensure that a protocol will remain functionally patent-free. Any Working Group is free to make use of these procedures as part of their development process. A key component of these procedures is that every member of the Working Group is required to abide by the procedures.

Policy Statement Principles

Because of the difficulties relating to software patents described in Section 1.4, it is not possible to be absolutely certain that a protocol is truly patent-free. The scope of these policies and procedures is therefore limited to ensuring that a protocol is patent-free as far as is practically possible. The purpose of the procedures is to codify the following principles:

• Author's Patent-Free Intent Declaration. When a developer makes a patent-free declaration to the FPF, a key part of the declaration is that of intent. That is, the declarer is making the statement that to the best of the declarer's knowledge the protocol is patent-free, and that it is the declarer's intention to keep it so.
• Ongoing Patent-Free Contributions. By becoming a member of a Working Group, every contributor to the on-going maintenance and enhancement of the protocol is required to adhere to principles and procedures which preserve patent-freedom of the protocol.
• Working Group's Declaration When a Working Group makes a declaration to the FPF, the effect of this declaration is that the Working Group's activities conform to a set of processes that ensure, insofar as possible, that the resulting protocol specification is functionally patent-free.
• Patent Assertion Disclosure If a patent assertion is made subsequent to the declaration, the declarer undertakes to make prompt announcement of this to the Free Protocols Foundation. The Free Protocols Foundation maintains a record of all patent right assertions that have been made against any of its listed protocols. This record is available in the Notices of Claimed Rights section of the FPF website.
• Obtaining Non-Restrictive Usage Rights. In the event that the developer becomes aware of a patent restriction relating to the protocol, the developer will attempt to obtain non-restrictive usage rights for the protocol.

General Policy

In all matters of patent and confidentiality rights and procedures, the intention of the FPF is to benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while respecting the legal rights of others.

Confidentiality Obligations

No Free Protocol Developer shall make any contribution to the Free Protocol Working Group that is confidential. No contribution that is subject to any requirement of confidentiality or any restriction on its dissemination shall be included in any part of a Free Protocol Specification.

Rights and Permissions of All Contributions

By submission of a contribution, each person actually submitting the contribution is deemed to agree to the following terms and conditions on his own behalf, on behalf of the organization (if any) he represents and on behalf of the owners of any proprietary rights in the contribution. Where a submission identifies contributors in addition to the contributor(s) who provide the actual submission, the actual submitter(s) represent that each other named contributor was made aware of and agreed to accept the same terms and conditions on his own behalf, on behalf of any organization he may represent and any known owner of any proprietary rights in the contribution.

1.

Some works (e.g. works of the U.S. Government) are not subject to copyright. However, to the extent that the submission is or may be subject to copyright, the contributor, the organization he represents (if any) and the owners of any proprietary rights in the contribution, grant an unlimited, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide right and license to the Free Protocols Foundation and the Free Protocol Working Group under any copyrights in the contribution. This license includes the right to copy, publish and distribute the contribution in any way, and to prepare derivative works that are based on or incorporate all or part of the contribution, the license to such derivative works to be of the same scope as the license of the original contribution.

2.

The contributor acknowledges that the Free Protocol Working Group and the Free Protocols Foundation have no duty to publish or otherwise use or disseminate any contribution.

3.

The contributor grants permission to reference the name(s) and address(es) of the contributor(s) and of the organization(s) he represents (if any).

4.

The contributor represents that the contribution properly acknowledges major contributors.

5.

The contributor, the organization (if any) he represents, and the owners of any proprietary rights in the contribution agree that no information in the contribution is confidential and that the Free Protocol Working Group and the FPF may freely disclose any information in the contribution.

6.

The contributor represents that he has disclosed the existence of any proprietary or patent rights in the contribution that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor. The contributor does not represent that he personally knows of all potentially pertinent proprietary and patent, confidentiality and copyright rights owned or claimed by the organization he represents (if any) or third parties.

7.

The contributor represents that there are no limits to the contributor's ability to make the grants acknowledgments and agreements above that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor.

FPF Role Regarding Free Protocol Specifications

1.

Where any patents, patent applications, or other proprietary rights are known, or claimed, with respect to any Free Protocol Specification, and brought to the attention of the FPF, the FPF shall prepare a note, to be included in the next revision of the Free Protocol Specification, indicating the existence of such rights, or claimed rights.

2.

The FPF encourages all interested parties to bring to its attention, at the earliest possible time, the existence of any patent rights pertaining to Free Protocol Specifications.

3.

Where the FPF knows of rights, or claimed rights under (1), the FPF shall assist the Free Protocol Working Group in attempting to obtain from the claimant of such rights, a written assurance with respect to the relevant protocol specification(s), that any party 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.