Before I disappear on vacation for the next two weeks, I thought that I
should forward the following proposal for consideration.
It is a suggestion for the PWG Process document -- on the section about
Intellectual Property. The material enclosed represents a distillation
of much of the IP guidelines that have been developed for the TWAIN
group over the past several months. Although my corporate headquarters
is still reviewing and considering some of the specific details, I
believe this can serve as an adequate draft for consideration by the PWG
group.
If possible, I think it would be useful to add a discussion of the
proposed material to the agenda for the Savannah meeting.
======================================================================
PWG INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROCEDURES
Purpose:
This proposal aims to suggest a detailed IP policy for the Printer
Working group. The formalization will allow longer periods for
discussion of new proposals and at the same time, the new proposals will
undergo scrutiny for compliance with the proposed intellectual property
policy. This policy supports the creation of multiple specifications and
helps developers plan for new releases and updates because of the
regular release schedule. Much of this proposal is taken from the
policies of other standards organizations so many of the members may
already be familiar with the language.
Section 8: Intellectual property and Confidentiality
Replace Section 8 by the following:
Section 8.1 (a) Ownership of IP rights:
All patents, copyrights, or other intellectual property owned or
created by any Member, member's affiliate or member's parent company
("hereinafter "Member or Associate) outside the PWG or its work within
the PWG shall remain the property of that Member or Associate thereunder
and shall not be affected in any way by the Member or Associate's
participation in the PWG.
The PWG may, through its activities, generate intellectual property,
and license such property to Members and/or Associates on reasonable
and
nondiscriminatory terms, conditions and prices; provided, however, that
Members and Associates receive more favorable pricing than non-Members
or non-Associates.
All information and materials, and all copyrights thereto,
contributed by Members and Associates and their representatives and
incorporated into a PWG Standard and Specification (here after "the
Standard") shall be owned by the contributing Member or Associate. The
contributing Member or Associate shall grant PWG and its Members and
Associates an irrevocable royalty free license to use, reproduce,
modify, distribute and sublicense the copyrighted work(s) incorporated
in the Standard.
Notwithstanding the above, any intellectual property independently
created
by a Member or Associate, but not incorporated into a PWG standard,
should remain the exclusive property of the original owner and
no mandatory license should be imposed.
Participants in the standard setting procedure shall disclose any
known patent or patent application whose use would be required for
compliance with a proposed PWG standard. Prior to PWG's approval of the
proposed standard, the PWG should receive a written patent statement
from the patent as described below in section 8.1(d).
8.1 (b) Specification Approval and Release Schedule
In order to allow suitable time for review of new proposals, release of
PWG specifications will occur on a regularly scheduled time frame, not
to exceed one year between releases.
1. The steering committee will decide upon the appropriate release
schedule for each specification.
2. Proposal deadline: New submissions as proposals are accepted for the
current specification upto twenty-four weeks prior to the scheduled date
of release.
3. Voting period: Voting on the technical merits will be conducted
during the twelve weeks immediately before the release date.
4. Twelve weeks before technical voting will be designated for final
technical review of the proposals submitted for the current release.
5. All members must submit a written patent statement according to
section 8.1 (d)(6) between the proposal deadline and the commencement of
voting period.
6. Urgent Proposals: If a proposal is made and a simple majority of
Steering Committee deems the proposal to be urgent, the proposal maybe
voted upon after a four-week review period. The voting period is two
weeks. Patent statements must be made between the beginning of the
review period and the voting period. If the proposal is accepted, an
interim release of the new specification is made.
8.1 (c ) Intellectual Property Procedures
The PWG is not in a position to give authoritative or comprehensive
information about evidence, validity or scope of patents or similar
rights, but it is desirable that any available information should be
disclosed. Therefore, all PWG members should, from the outset, draw
PWG's attention to any Relevant Patents (hereinafter defined) either
their own or of other organizations including their Affiliates
(hereinafter defined) that are known to the PWG members or any of their
Affiliates, although PWG is unable to verify the validity of any such
information.
"Relevant Patents" means any issued or registered patent, without use of
which a Proposed PWG Standard cannot be practiced. " Proposed PWG
Standard" means each proposal to each PWG specification, which
proposal is submitted to PWG after the date of acceptance of these
Procedures (hereinafter the Effective Date). "Affiliates or Associates"
with respect to section 8.1 (c ) means any entity that as of the
Effective Date directly or indirectly Controls the PWG member or is
Controlled by the PWG member, so long as such Control exists, where
"Control" means beneficial ownership of more than fifty percent (50%) of
the voting stock or equity in an entity.
8.1 (d) Patent Statement
If a Proposed PWG Standard is submitted to the PWG, three different
situations may arise with respect to the relevant Patents:
(1) In the event the PWG Proposed Standard is adopted to become a PWG
Standard, the patent holder waives his rights under the Relevant Patents
owned by him and hence, the Proposed PWG Standard is freely accessible
to everybody; no particular conditions, no royalties due, etc., with
respect to such Relevant Patents. The PWG Standard means any PWG
specifications that are officially published by PWG after ___.
(2) In the event a PWG Proposed Standard is adopted as a PWG Standard,
the patent holder is not prepared to waive his rights under the Relevant
Patents owned by him but would be willing to grant licenses to other
parties on a non-discriminatory basis and on reasonable terms and
conditions, provided a similar grant under the licensee's patents within
the scope of the license granted to the licensee is made available. Such
license grants are left to the parties concerned.
(3 ) In the event the Proposed Standard is adopted to become a PWG
Standard, and the patent holder is not willing to comply with the
provisions of either paragraph 8.1(d) (1) or (2), in such a case no
Proposal can be established as a PWG Standard.
(4). Whichever option from among paragraphs 8.1(d)(1)(2) or (3)) is
chosen, any PWG member must provide a written statement to be filed on
behalf of itself and its Affiliates at the PWG secretariat with respect
to the Relevant Patents that are owned by the PWG member or any of its
Affiliates and known to the PWG member or any of its Affiliates. This
statement must not include additional provisions, conditions, or any
other exclusion clauses in excess of what is provided for each case in
paragraphs 8.1(d) (1), (2) and (3).
(5) If no Relevant Patents that are owned by the PWG member or any of
its Affiliates are known to the PWG member or any of its Affiliates, an
affirmative disclosure to that effect must be submitted before the end
of the Patent Statement deadline in lieu of the Patent Statement. Any
Relevant Patents that are owned by the PWG member or any of its
Affiliates and are found after the Patent Statement deadline are
automatically subject to either paragraph 8.1(d)(1) or (2) as described
above.
(6) Format of Patent Statement/Patent Notice
(i) A Patent Statement should be submitted by all the PWG members for
each item found in case that the Relevant Patents which are known to the
PWG members and their Affiliates and are owned by the PWG members or
their Affiliate, providing the following information:
1. Proposal Name
2. Organization: The organization that holds the patent which could
include administrations, universities, etc., and its contact address.
3. Tel. No.: The contact telephone number of the organization.
4. Fax. No.: The contact fax number of the organization.
5. Patent Policy and Remarks: The declared patent policy of the
organization in its communication to the PWG. Most often the patent
policy is given as "Pat. Policy. 8.1(d)(2)", which would mean that the
organization subscribes to paragraph 8.1(d)(2) of the PWG bylaws.
6. Patent Title: The title of a patent
7. Patent Number: The number of the patent.
8. Patent Country: The country in which the patent has been obtained. If
the patent is held in several countries, a list of those countries is
given.
9. Signature: Signature of an authorized representative of the company.
(ii) Further, a Patent Notice should be submitted by all the PWG members
for each item found in case that the Relevant Patents which are known to
the PWG members and their Affiliates and are not owned nor controlled by
the PWG members or their Affiliate, providing the following information:
1. Proposal Name
2. Organization: The organization that holds the patent which could
include administrations, universities, etc., and its contact address.
3. Patent Title: The title of a patent
4. Patent Number
5. Patent Country: The country in which the patent has been
obtained. If the patent is held in several countries, a list of those
countries is given.
6. Signature: Signature of a representative of the company
8.2 Non-Confidentiality.
The participation in the PWG by the Members and the Associates and their
appointed representatives shall be on a non-confidential basis; however,
the PWG may with the approval of the Board of Directors, wherein such
approval shall not be unreasonably withheld, enter into written
confidentiality agreements with its Members and Associates which
restrict the dissemination of specified confidential information and/or
materials provided by any of such Members or Associates to Persons who
are not Members or Associates. Confidentiality agreements entered into
by the PWG shall bind all of the individual Members and Associates.
8.3 Infringing Material.
The PWG or its individual Members and Associates shall have no liability
to third parties for any infringement claims with respect to any
intellectual property licensed from a Member or Associate incorporated
into thePWG standard. ("Licensed Property"). The Member or Associate
providing the Licensed Property to the PWG or to other individual
Members or Associates shall be required to protect and indemnify the PWG
and its officers, directors, and agents, as well as other Members and
Associates against such infringement claims arising out of the Licensed
Property provided, however, that the PWG and all Members and Associates
cease using such infringing information or material. Members or
Associates shall have no liability under Section 8.3 for any claim,
suit, or proceeding based upon any modification of Licensed Property by
the PWG or its Members or Associates.
========================================================================
=====
> -----Original Message-----
> From: don at lexmark.com [mailto:don at lexmark.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 14, 1998 10:28 AM
> To: pwg at pwg.org> Subject: PWG> Process Document
>>> I have temporarily placed the current process document at:
>>ftp://ftp.lexmark.com/pub/ieee/pwg/pwg-process-980814.pdf>> Please review this draft before the Wednesday morning PWG session. I
> have changed the language about intellectual property and
> confidentiality as we discussed last month.
>> As soon as the PWG server is back up, I will place the document on
> that server.
>> **********************************************
> * Don Wright don at lexmark.com *
> * Product Manager, Strategic Alliances *
> * Lexmark International *
> * 740 New Circle Rd *
> * Lexington, Ky 40550 *
> * 606-232-4808 (phone) 606-232-6740 (fax) *
> **********************************************
>>