A Template for IETF Patent Disclosures and Licensing Declarations

Status of this Memo

This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

Copyright © The Internet Society (2004).

Abstract

This document describes a proposal for one form of a template for IETF patent disclosures and licensing declarations. The optional use of this template is meant to simplify the process of such disclosures and licensing declarations and to assist disclosers in providing the necessary information to meet the obligations documented in RFC 3668.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction...................................................  1
   2. The Patent Disclosure and Licensing Declaration Template.......  2
   3. Commentary on Terms Used in the Template.......................  5
   4. Security Considerations........................................  7
   5. Normative References...........................................  7
   6. Acknowledgments................................................  7
   7  Editor's Address...............................................  8
   8. Authors' Addresses.............................................  8
   9. Full Copyright Statement.......................................  9

1. Introduction

RFC 3668 [RFC3668] documents the current IETF policies and obligations with respect to disclosure of patents and patent applications. It also documents the information requested in licensing declarations for IETF specifications. In the interest of making these patent disclosure and licensing declaration processes simpler, this document proposes a patent disclosure and licensing declaration template that may be optionally used as one method for IETF participants and patent holders to comply with patent disclosure requirements and licensing declaration provisions under RFC 3668.

This proposal also may be optionally used as a model by the IETF Secretariat for Web-based disclosure and licensing declaration tools; however, the intent of this document is informational and is not meant to suggest that this is the only method that could be used by IETF participants for disclosure of patents or for licensing declarations. For the latest information on how to submit a patent disclosure or licensing declaration, please see http://www.ietf.org/ipr-instructions.

IPR disclosures should be submitted in English, since this is the working language of the IETF. Names of persons and companies should be presented in the way they are usually presented in an English- speaking context.

2. The Patent Disclosure and Licensing Declaration Template

   START OF TEMPLATE

This document is an IETF Patent Disclosure and Licensing Declaration Template and is submitted to inform the IETF of a) patent information regarding the IETF document or contribution listed in Section IV, and b) a Patent Holder's intention with respect to the licensing of its necessary patent claims. No actual license is implied by submission of this template. Please complete and submit a separate template for each IETF document or contribution to which the disclosed patent information relates.

I. Patent Holder/Applicant ("Patent Holder")

Legal Name:

II. Patent Holder's Contact for License Application

Name:

Title:

Department:

Address:

Telephone:

Fax:

Email:

III. Contact Information for the IETF Participant Whose Personal Belief Triggered the Disclosure in this Template (Optional)

Name:

Title:

Department:

Address:

Telephone:

Fax:

Email:

IV. IETF Document or Contribution to Which Patent Disclosure Relates

Title:

RFC Number or I-D Tag:

Other Designations:

V. Disclosure of Patent Information (i.e., patents or patent applications required to be disclosed by Section 6 of RFC 3668)

A. For granted patents or published pending patent applications, please provide the following information:

   Patent, Serial, Publication, Registration, or Application/File
   number(s):

Date(s) granted or applied for (YYYY-MM-DD):

Country(ies):

B. Does your disclosure relate to an unpublished pending patent application?

   Select one:  Yes  ______  No ______

C. If an Internet-Draft or RFC includes multiple parts and it is not reasonably apparent which part of such an Internet-Draft or RFC is alleged to be covered by the patent information disclosed in Section V(A) or V(B), it is helpful if the discloser identifies here the sections of the Internet-Draft or RFC that are alleged to be so covered.

   VI. Licensing Declaration

The Patent Holder states that its position with respect to licensing any patent claims contained in the patent(s) or patent application(s) disclosed above that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of the technology required by the relevant IETF specification ("Necessary Patent Claims"), for the purpose of implementing such a specification, is as follows (select one licensing declaration option only):

   a) ___   No License Required for Implementers
              Check here if commitment to forgo a license is limited
              solely to standards-track RFCs ___
   
   b) ___   Royalty-Free, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory License to
            All Implementers
              Check here if this commitment to license is limited solely
              to standards-track RFCs ___
   
   c) ___   Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory License to All
            Implementers with Possible Royalty/Fee
              Check here if this commitment to license is limited solely
              to standards-track RFCs ___
   
   d) ___   Licensing Declaration to be Provided Later (implies a
            willingness to commit to the provisions of a), b), or c)
            above; otherwise, the next option - "Unwilling to Commit to
            the Provisions of a), b), or c) Above" - must be selected)
   
   e) ___   Unwilling to Commit to the Provisions of a), b), or c)
            Above

NOTE: The individual submitting this template represents and warrants that he or she is authorized by the Patent Holder to agree to the above-selected licensing declaration.

VII. Contact Information of Submitter of this Form (if different from IETF Participant in Section III above)

Name:

Title:

Department:

Address:

Telephone:

Fax:

Email:

VIII. Other Notes:

   END OF TEMPLATE

3. Commentary on Terms Used in the Template

Section III requests contact information for the Patent Holder's IETF participant whose personal belief that necessary patent claims are implicated by an IETF document or contribution caused this template to be filed. This is an optional section. However, if Section III is not completed, then Section VII must be completed. Even if Section III is completed, Section VII must still be completed if the submitter of this template is different from the IETF participant identified in Section III.

The "Other Designations" field in Section IV may be used to identify an IETF contribution (oral or written) other than an Internet-Draft or RFC to which a disclosure is related.

Here is an explanation of the licensing declaration options in Section VI of the template:

a) No License Required for Implementers: The Patent Holder does not

require parties to acquire any license to its Necessary Patent Claims in order to make, have made, use, import, offer to sell, sell, or distribute technology that implements such an IETF specification.

   b) Royalty-Free, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory License to All
   
      Implementers: The Patent Holder is willing, upon request, to grant
      a license to its Necessary Patent Claims to all persons on a
      royalty-free basis (i.e., no royalty or other fee) and under other
      reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions, to make,

have made, use, import, offer to sell, sell, and distribute technology that implements such an IETF specification.

c) Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory License to All Implementers with

Possible Royalty/Fee: The Patent Holder is willing, upon request, to grant a license to its Necessary Patent Claims to all persons under reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions (which may include a royalty/fee), to make, have made, use, import, offer to sell, sell, and distribute technology that implements such an IETF specification.

d) Licensing Declaration to be Provided Later: The Patent Holder is

willing to commit to the provisions of a), b), or c) above, but wants to defer its specific selection of one of these licensing declaration options until a later point in time (or when asked for this information by the IESG). This option may not be selected if the Patent Holder is unwilling to commit to the provisions of a), b), or c) above. In that case, the Patent Holder must select licensing declaration option e) - "Unwilling to Commit to the Provisions of a), b), or c) Above."

   e) Unwilling to Commit to the Provisions of a), b), or c) Above: The
      Patent Holder indicates an unwillingness to commit to the
      provisions of any of options a), b), or c) described above.
   
   Options a), b), and c) above also allow the Patent Holder to indicate
   (with a check) whether its licensing declaration is limited solely to
   standards-track RFCs.  If left unchecked, the Patent Holder's
   licensing declaration will be deemed to apply to any implementation
   of the relevant IETF specification, including non-standards-track
   documents and Internet-Drafts.  However, the Patent Holder may list
   other conditions or restrictions on its commitment to forego a
   license (option a)) or on its commitment to license (options b) and
   c)) in Section VIII - "Other Notes."  This standards-track qualifier
   is not relevant to licensing declaration options d) and e), because
   under d) the Patent Holder has not yet indicated its specific
   licensing intention and under e) the Patent Holder has indicated a
   general refusal to commit to the provisions of any of options a), b),
   or c) above.

Section VIII in the template, "Other Notes," may be used for any additional information a discloser or Patent Holder wishes to provide. For example, a Patent Holder may use the "Other Notes" Section to indicate any other conditions or restrictions on the licensing declaration option selected in Section VI (e.g., 1) reciprocity, or 2) that a license will only be made available for implementations of any RFC (standards-track or non-standards-track), but not for implementations of Internet-Drafts or other documents).

4. Security Considerations

This document relates to the IETF process, not any particular technology. There are security considerations when adopting any particular technology, regardless of whether patent or patent application disclosures or licensing declarations are implicated by such technology. A working group should take those security considerations into account as one part of evaluating the technology, but there are no security considerations per se with these IETF processes.

5. Normative References

   [RFC3668] Bradner, S., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
             Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3668, February 2004.

6. Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the thoughtful contributions of Harald Alvestrand and Scott Bradner to this document.

7. Editor's Address

Valerie See
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052 USA

EMail:

          vsee@microsoft.com

8. Authors' Addresses

Robert Barr
Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134 USA

EMail:

          rbarr@cisco.com

Scott Brim
Cisco Systems, Inc.
146 Honess Lane
Ithaca, NY 14850 USA

EMail:

          sbrim@cisco.com

Paul Gleichauf
Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134 USA

EMail:

          phg@cisco.com

Allen Lo
Juniper Networks
1194 North Mathilda Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA

EMail:

          alo@juniper.net

9. Full Copyright Statement

Copyright © The Internet Society (2004).

This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.

This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/S HE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Intellectual Property

The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the IETF's procedures with respect to rights in IETF Documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf- ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society.