IPR Guidelines for Working Groups

1. IPR Guidelines for Working Groups draft- Scott Brim swb@cisco.com

2. Goal • Help IPR treatment in WGs. • unify “common knowledge” • make it more explicit • Look at case studies, extract principles. • This draft interprets and applies what’s in the others – it brings out implications, but it is dependent on the others.

3. Basics • IPR-free and royalty-free are desirable but not at all costs. • Take IPR into account as you would any other attribute of a technology. • Importance varies by case. • Don’t ignore IPR when you find it.

4. Certainty About Claims is Unattainable • Four scenarios: • submitter of draft points out its IPR issues • non-submitter participant notes own claims • non-submitter participant notes other’s claims • non-participant discovers own technology used and may notify IETF • … at any time during the life of a standard. • Claims can be challenged. • Licensing terms are more critical than claims.

5. Keep Asking Anyway • Solicit input when: • first examining a technology. • deciding to adopt a draft. • choosing between two or more WG drafts that use different technologies. • moving to RFC, proposed standard, etc. • deciding to depend on outside technology.

6. More Rules of Thumb • Fight vagueness, in both claims and terms. • Extrapolate from past experience. • What’s the risk if you guess wrong? • There’s a fine line between taking IPR into account and passing judgment as a WG.

7. Unfinished • Case studies? • Are WGs freer from legal issues than I think they are? • explicit mention of IPR in conclusions? • Encourage participation. • How to keep 3rd party disclosure from being used to stall progress? • Security considerations