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<title>Current Patent Practice</title>
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<h1><a id="title" name="title">Current Patent Practice</a></h1>
<h2><a id="W3C-doctype" name="W3C-doctype">W3C Note 24 January
2002</a></h2>
<dl>
<dt>This version:</dt>
<dd><a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/NOTE-patent-practice-20020124">http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/NOTE-patent-practice-20020124</a></dd>
<dt>Latest version:</dt>
<dd><a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/patent-practice">http://www.w3.org/TR/patent-practice</a></dd>
<dt>Previous version:</dt>
<dd>(none)</dd>
<dt>Editor:</dt>
<dd>Daniel J. Weitzner, W3C/MIT, <a
href="mailto:djweitzner@w3.org">djweitzner@w3.org</a></dd>
<dt>Author:</dt>
<dd>Daniel J. Weitzner, W3C/MIT, <a
href="mailto:djweitzner@w3.org">djweitzner@w3.org</a></dd>
</dl>
<p class="copyright"><a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice-20000612#Copyright">
Copyright</a> &#169;2000, 2001, 2002 <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><abbr
title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr></a><sup>&#174;</sup> (<a
href="http://www.lcs.mit.edu/"><abbr
title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</abbr></a>, <a
href="http://www.inria.fr/"><abbr xml:lang="fr" lang="fr"
title="Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique">INRIA</abbr></a>,
<a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>), All Rights Reserved. W3C <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice-20000612#Legal_Disclaimer">
liability</a>, <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice-20000612#W3C_Trademarks">
trademark</a>, <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents-19990405">document
use</a> and <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software-19980720">software
licensing</a> rules apply.</p>
</div>
<hr title="Separator for header" />
<h2><a id="Abstract" name="Abstract">Abstract</a></h2>
<p>This document describes current patent practice followed by the
World Wide Web Consortium. This practice includes disclosure rules,
process for setting goals for the licensing terms under which
Recommendations can be implemented, and a dispute resolution process in
the event these goals are not met.</p>
<h2><a id="Status" name="Status">Status of This Document</a></h2>
<p>In response to requests to clarify current W3C patent practice, this
document was prepared by the W3C Team and reviewed by the W3C Advisory
Board. The Advisory Board recommended that this document be published
at its 22 January 2002 meeting. On 1 March 2001, the Advisory Board
suggested that the Team begin to implement the draft patent policies of
the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/ppwg/">Patent Policy Working
Group</a> (PPWG). The patent practice described in this document
represents the current state in the evolution of the Team's
implementation. This document draws heavily on the work of the PPWG,
although it has not been approved by that group. Links in this document
provide references to definitions and processes developed by the PPWG,
and to examples of its implementation since March 2001.</p>
<p>A final patent policy is also under development by the <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent/Group/">W3C Patent Policy
Working Group</a> (<a
href="http://cgi.w3.org/MemberAccess/AccessRequest">Members only</a>).
Nothing in this document will prejudice or constrain the outcome of
that policy development work. The final policy will be subject to W3C
Advisory Committee review and a formal decision by the Director.</p>
<p>Comments about this document may be sent to the public mailing list
<a
href="mailto:www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org">www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org</a>.
<a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/">Public
archives</a> are available. A <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/">list of
current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents</a> can be
found at the W3C Web site.</p>
<h2><a id="sec-Contents" name="sec-Contents">Table of Contents</a></h2>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#Abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#Status">Status of This Document</a></li>
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#sec-Goals">1. Goals and
Overview</a></li>
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#sec-Licensing">2. Licensing Requirements
in New Working Group Charters</a></li>
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#sec-Disclosure">3. Disclosure
Rules</a></li>
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#sec-PAG">4. Patent Advisory Groups
(PAG)</a></li>
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#sec-Acknowledgements">5.
Acknowledgements</a></li>
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#sec-Definitions">6. Appendix:
Definitions</a></li>
<li class="tocline2"><a href="#sec-References">7. Appendix:
References</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a id="sec-Goals" name="sec-Goals">1. Goals and Overview</a></h2>
<p>This current practice has evolved in order to satisfy the goal held
by a number of W3C Members and significant parts of the larger Web
community: that W3C Recommendations should be, as far as possible,
implementable on a Royalty-Free basis <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2002/01/NOTE-patent-practice.html#ref-AC">[AC]</a>.
The current practice described here seeks to</p>
<ul>
<li>establish Royalty-Free implementation as a <a
href="#sec-Licensing">goal</a> for Recommendations produced by new and
re-chartered Working Groups;</li>
<li>encourage maximum <a href="#sec-Disclosure">disclosure</a> of
patents that might prevent a W3C Recommendation from being implemented
on a Royalty-Free basis;</li>
<li>provide a <a href="#sec-PAG">process</a> for addressing situations
in which the goal of Royalty-Free implementation may not be
attainable.</li>
</ul>
<p>This document relies on the definition of Royalty-Free licensing as
described in the W3C Patent Policy Framework Last Call Working Draft <a
href="#ref-PATENT-POLICY">[PATENT-POLICY]</a>. Note that current W3C
patent practice does not require any W3C Member to make a Royalty-Free
licensing commitment for essential patents it may hold. Such a
commitment is under discussion in the Patent Policy Working Group for
possible inclusion in of the final patent policy, but has not been
implemented.</p>
<h2><a id="sec-Licensing" name="sec-Licensing">2. Licensing
Requirements in New Working Group Charters</a></h2>
<p>Each new or re-chartered Working Group will be chartered with a
patent licensing requirement. At present, only <a
href="#def-RF">Royalty-Free (RF)</a> Working Groups will be created.
This requirement describes the licensing terms according to which the
final Recommendation ought to be able to be implemented. It does
<strong>not</strong> impose any licensing requirements on either
Working Group participants or W3C Members as a whole. Experience over
the last year has shown that putting licensing requirements in the
charter raises awareness and exposes potential patent issues earlier in
the process, which makes better use of everyone's resources. If there
is doubt as to whether a Working Group can produce an RF
Recommendation, the <a href="#sec-PAG-Procedures">PAG procedure</a>
described below is invoked.</p>
<p>At present we only have a process for RF Working Groups. While we do
not currently have a process for <a href="#def-RAND">RAND</a> groups,
the Patent Policy Working Group has been asked <a
href="#ref-AC">[AC]</a> to look into creating one.</p>
<h2><a id="sec-Disclosure" name="sec-Disclosure">3. Disclosure
Rules</a></h2>
<p>All W3C Members are obliged to disclose patents following the
existing requirements in the W3C Process Document (see section 2 of <a
href="#ref-PROCESS">[PROCESS]</a>). Disclosures should take the
following form:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I [do not] have personal knowledge of [any] IPR claims held by
[organization] regarding [subject].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Disclosures must cite specific patent numbers that are considered
possibly essential to a named specification. All disclosure statements
made by W3C Members are made public with each publicly-visible Working
Draft (public Working Draft, Last Call Working Draft, Candidate
Recommendation, Proposed Recommendation, Recommendation).</p>
<h2><a id="sec-PAG" name="sec-PAG">4. Patent Advisory Groups
(PAG)</a></h2>
<p>In the event a Working Group participant has disclosed a patent that
may be essential, but has not declared licensing terms, then a Patent
Advisory Group will be launched to resolve the conflict. The PAG is an
ad-hoc group constituted specifically in relation to the Working Group
with the conflict, and will meet in order to help the Consortium find a
resolution to the identified problem and then dissolve. During the time
that the PAG is operating, the Working Group may continue its technical
work within the bounds of its charter.</p>
<p>A PAG will be triggered for a Working Group by one of two
conditions:</p>
<ol>
<li>incomplete patent disclosures from Working Group participants in
good standing</li>
<li>discovery of specific patent claims likely to be <a
href="#def-Essential-Claims">essential</a> that are not available on <a
href="#def-RF">RF</a> terms.</li>
</ol>
<h4><a id="sec-PAG-Incomplete" name="sec-PAG-Incomplete">Incomplete
Patent Disclosures</a></h4>
<p>Patent disclosures are considered complete if every member in good
standing of the Working Group has filed a disclosure, through the
Member's Advisory Committee representative, that fits one of the
following descriptions:</p>
<ol>
<li>"To the best of my personal knowledge, my organization has no <a
href="#def-Essential-Claims">essential</a> patents."</li>
<li>"My organization has patents that may be <a
href="#def-Essential-Claims">essential</a>.", along with an enumeration
of the patent numbers.</li>
<li>"My organization may or may not have <a
href="#def-Essential-Claims">essential</a> patents. If we do, we agree
to license them on <a href="#def-RF">Royalty-Free</a> terms to all
implementers, whether or not they are Members of W3C." This licensing
commitment may also be replaced with specific, <a
href="#def-RF">Royalty-Free</a> licensing terms.</li>
</ol>
<h4><a id="sec-PAG-Non-RF" name="sec-PAG-Non-RF">Non-RF License Terms
for Specific Patent Claims</a></h4>
<p>If any <a href="#def-Essential-Claims">essential</a> claims become
known through the <a href="#sec-Disclosure">disclosure</a> procedure
which are specifically indicated to be unavailable on <a
href="#def-RF">Royalty-Free</a> terms, then a PAG must be launched.</p>
<p>Working Groups whose specifications have already advanced to
Candidate Recommendation, Proposed Recommendation, or Recommendation
status will not be subject to these requirements unless the Director
considers it vital to the openness and interoperability of the
technology in question.</p>
<h3><a id="sec-PAG-Composition" name="sec-PAG-Composition">4.1 PAG
Composition</a></h3>
<p>The PAG is composed of:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Advisory Committee representatives of each W3C Member
organization participating in the Working Group (or alternate
designated by the Advisory Committee representative)</li>
<li>Working Group Team contact</li>
<li>Working Group Chair, <em>ex officio</em></li>
<li>Domain Leader responsible for the Working Group</li>
<li>Other W3C Team members as needed</li>
</ul>
<p>W3C Member participants in the PAG should be authorized to represent
their organizations' views on patent licensing issues. Any participant
in the PAG may also be represented by legal counsel, though this is not
required. Invited experts are not entitled to participate in the PAG,
though the PAG may chose to invite any qualified experts who would be
able to assist the PAG in its determinations.</p>
<h3><a id="sec-PAG-Procedures" name="sec-PAG-Procedures">4.2 PAG
Procedures</a></h3>
<p>The PAG will be convened by the Working Group Team contact, based on
a charter developed initially by the Team. The charter should
include:</p>
<ul>
<li>clear goals for the PAG, especially a statement of the question(s)
the PAG is to answer;</li>
<li>duration (maximum 90 days);</li>
<li>confidentiality status, which must follow the underlying Working
Group (Member only, public, etc.).</li>
</ul>
<p>The PAG may seek an extension of time from the Director, but must
state a reason for extension and report on progress to date. The PAG,
once convened, may propose changes to its charter as appropriate, to be
accepted based on consensus of the PAG participants. The Team will
choose a member of the PAG to serve as Chair.</p>
<h3><a id="sec-PAG-Conclusion" name="sec-PAG-Conclusion">4.3 PAG
Conclusion</a></h3>
<p>After appropriate consultation, the PAG may conclude either:</p>
<ol>
<li>The initial concern has been resolved, enabling the Working Group
to continue</li>
<li>The specification under development should be produced on <a
href="#def-RAND">RAND</a> terms.
<p>Note that there is neither clear support amongst the Membership for
producing RAND specifications nor a process for doing so. Therefore if
a PAG makes a recommendation to proceed on RAND terms, Advisory
Committee review and Director's decision will be required. It is also
possible that a the PAG could recommend that the work be taken to
another organization.</p>
</li>
<li>The Working Group should be terminated.</li>
</ol>
<p>In either case, the PAG must state its reasons in a W3C document to
become public with the next public draft of the specification.</p>
<p>The PAG procedure has been in effect since April 2001 <a
href="#ref-PAG-PROCESS">[PAG-PROCESS]</a> and used for the SMIL PAG,
the SVG PAG, and the Voice Browser PAG. The disclosure summaries
produced by the PAGs for the SVG <a href="#ref-SVG-IPR">[SVG-IPR]</a>
or SMIL <a href="#ref-SYMM-IPR">[SYMM-IPR]</a> Recommendations
illustrate how the PAG process works to provide more information to
developers about licensing issues related to particular W3C
Recommendations. In both cases, many participants provided Royalty-Free
licensing offers for all Essential Claims. Some other participants made
RAND commitments. In the case of those who made RAND commitments,
however, those participants did not disclose specific Essential Claims,
as far as the PAG could see. Based on this information, the PAGs
recommended to the Director that the Recommendations should be
issued.</p>
<p>The presentation format for the disclosure and licensing information
are useful examples to follow. In the case of the Voice Browser PAG, no
final Recommendation has yet been issued.</p>
<h2><a id="sec-Acknowledgements" name="sec-Acknowledgements">5.
Acknowledgements</a></h2>
<p>Thanks to the W3C Advisory Board for guidance through the transition
in W3C patent policy. The author also thanks all W3C Working Group
Chairs, Advisory Committee representatives, and Team members who
contributed to the development of W3C's current patent practice by
being on the rough edge of these processes as they have evolved.
Finally, many thanks to all of the participants in the Patent Policy
Working Group who continue to work toward the development of the final
policy.</p>
<h2><a id="sec-Definitions" name="sec-Definitions">6. Appendix:
Definitions</a></h2>
<p>Current practice uses the following licensing definitions from the
Patent Policy Working Group's 16 August 2001 Last Call Working Draft <a
href="#ref-PATENT-POLICY">[PATENT-POLICY]</a>. These definitions,
copied verbatim from the Last Call Working Draft, are reproduced here
for convenience.</p>
<dl>
<dt><a id="def-Essential-Claims" name="def-Essential-Claims">Essential
Claims</a></dt>
<dd>
<p>"Essential Claims" shall mean all claims in any patent or patent
application with an effective filing date within one year and one day
after the publication of the first Public Working Draft, in any
jurisdiction in the world, that a Member (or a licensor or licensee,
with reference to entities other than Members) owns, or under which a
Member (or a licensor or licensee) has the right to grant licenses
without obligation of payment or other consideration to an unrelated
third party, that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of
the Recommendation. A claim is necessarily infringed hereunder only
when it is not possible to avoid infringing it because there is no
non-infringing alternative for implementing the required portions of
the Recommendation. Existence of a non-infringing alternative shall be
judged based on the state-of-the-art at the time the specification
becomes a Recommendation.</p>
<p>The following are expressly excluded from and shall not be deemed to
constitute Essential Claims:</p>
<ol class="definitions">
<li>any claims other than as set forth above even if contained in the
same patent as Essential Claims; and</li>
<li>claims which would be infringed only by
<ul>
<li>portions of an implementation that are not required by the
Recommendation, or</li>
<li>enabling technologies that may be necessary to make or use any
product or portion thereof that complies with the Recommendation but
are not themselves expressly set forth in the Recommendation (e.g.,
semiconductor manufacturing technology, compiler technology,
object-oriented technology, basic operating system technology, and the
like); or</li>
<li>the implementation of technology developed elsewhere and merely
incorporated by reference in the body of the Recommendation.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<p>For purposes of this definition, the Recommendation shall be deemed
to include only architectural and interoperability requirements and
shall not include any implementation examples or any other material
that merely illustrates the requirements of the Recommendation.</p>
</dd>
<dt><a id="def-RAND" name="def-RAND">RAND License</a></dt>
<dd>
<p>RAND stands for "reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms. A "RAND
License" shall mean a license that:</p>
<ol>
<li>shall be available to all implementers worldwide, whether or not
they are W3C Members;</li>
<li>shall extend to all Essential Claims owned or controlled by the
licensor and its Affiliates (except as described in section 8.2
concerning licenses relating to Contributions);</li>
<li>may be limited to implementations of the Recommendation, and to
what is required by the Recommendation;</li>
<li>may be conditioned on a grant of a reciprocal RAND License to all
Essential Claims owned or controlled by the licensee and its
Affiliates. For example, a reciprocal license may be required to be
available to all, and a reciprocal license may itself be conditioned on
a further reciprocal license from all (including, in the case of a
license to a Contribution, the original licensee).</li>
<li>may be conditioned on payment of reasonable, non-discriminatory
royalties or fees;</li>
<li>may not impose any further conditions or restrictions on the use of
any technology, intellectual property rights, or other restrictions on
behavior of the licensee, but may include reasonable, customary terms
relating to operation or maintenance of the license relationship such
as the following: audit (when relevant to fees), choice of law, and
dispute resolution.</li>
</ol>
</dd>
<dt><a id="def-RF" name="def-RF">Royalty-Free License</a></dt>
<dd>
<p>A "Royalty-Free License" also called "RF License" shall have the
same characteristics as a RAND License, except that a Royalty-Free
License:</p>
<ol>
<li>may not be conditioned on payment of royalties, fees or other
consideration except for the conditions permitted in the clauses of <a
href="#def-RAND">RAND License</a> other than clause 5.</li>
<li>may require that all licensees make any Essential Claims they
control available to all on a no-royalty basis.</li>
<li>shall not be considered accepted by an implementer who manifests an
intent <strong>not</strong> to accept the terms of the Royalty-Free
License as offered by the licensor.</li>
</ol>
</dd>
</dl>
<h2><a id="sec-References" name="sec-References">7. Appendix:
References</a></h2>
<dl>
<dt><a id="ref-AC" name="ref-AC">[AC]</a></dt>
<dd><a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Nov/0147">
FW: Action Item from Advisory Committee Discussion on Patent
Policy</a>, D. Weitzner, 21 November 2001. This email message is
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Nov/0147.</dd>
<dt><a id="ref-PATENT-POLICY"
name="ref-PATENT-POLICY">[PATENT-POLICY]</a></dt>
<dd><cite><a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-patent-policy-20010816/">W3C Patent
Policy Framework</a></cite>, D. Weitzner et al., W3C, 16 August 2001.
This version is http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-patent-policy-20010816.
The <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/patent-policy/">latest version</a> is
available at http://www.w3.org/TR/patent-policy.</dd>
<dt><a id="ref-PAG-PROCESS"
name="ref-PAG-PROCESS">[PAG-PROCESS]</a></dt>
<dd><cite><a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/12-PAG-Process">Patent
Policy Working Group Patent Advisory Committee Process
Description</a></cite> (<a
href="http://cgi.w3.org/MemberAccess/AccessRequest">Members only</a>),
D. Weitzner, Editor. W3C, 12 April 2001. This document is
http://www.w3.org/2001/04/12-PAG-Process (<a
href="http://cgi.w3.org/MemberAccess/AccessRequest">Members
only</a>).</dd>
<dt><a id="ref-PROCESS" name="ref-PROCESS">[PROCESS]</a></dt>
<dd><cite><a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process-20010719/">World Wide Web
Consortium Process Document</a></cite>, I. Jacobs, Editor. W3C, 19 July
2001. This document is http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process-20010719.
The <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/">latest version</a>
is http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process.</dd>
<dt><a id="ref-SVG-IPR" name="ref-SVG-IPR">[SVG-IPR]</a></dt>
<dd><cite><a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/07/SVG10-IPR-statements">SVG
1.0 Patent Statements</a></cite>, D. Jackson et al., W3C, 2001-2002.
This document is http://www.w3.org/2001/07/SVG10-IPR-statements.</dd>
<dt><a id="ref-SYMM-IPR" name="ref-SYMM-IPR">[SYMM-IPR]</a></dt>
<dd><cite><a
href="http://www.w3.org/2001/05/23/SMIL-IPR-statements">SYMM Patent
Statements</a></cite>, T. Michel et al., W3C, 2001. This document is
http://www.w3.org/2001/05/23/SMIL-IPR-statements.</dd>
</dl>
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