Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Bradner Request for Comments: 8179 Harvard University BCP: 79 J. Contreras Obsoletes: 3979, 4879 University of Utah Updates: 2026 May 2017 Category: Best Current Practice ISSN: 2070-1721 Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology Abstract The IETF policies about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), such as patent rights, relative to technologies developed in the IETF are designed to ensure that IETF working groups and participants have as much information as possible about any IPR constraints on a technical proposal as early as possible in the development process. The policies are intended to benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of IPR holders. This document sets out the IETF policies concerning IPR related to technology worked on within the IETF. It also describes the objectives that the policies are designed to meet. This document updates RFC 2026 and, with RFC 5378, replaces Section 10 of RFC 2026. This document also obsoletes RFCs 3979 and 4879. Status of This Memo This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice. This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8179. Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 1] RFC 8179 IP in IETF Technology May 2017 Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 2] RFC 8179 IP in IETF Technology May 2017 Table of Contents 1. Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3. Participation in the IETF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.1. General Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.2. Rights and Permissions in Contributions. . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.3. Obligations on Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4. Actions for Documents for Which IPR Disclosure(s) Have Been Received . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5. IPR Disclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.1. Who Must Make an IPR Disclosure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.1.1. A Contributor's IPR in His or Her Contribution . . . . . 10 5.1.2. An IETF Participant's IPR in Contributions by Others . . 10 5.1.3. IPR of Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.2. The Timing of Providing Disclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.2.1. Timing of Disclosure under Section 5.1.1 . . . . . . . . . 11 5.2.2. Timing of Disclosure under Section 5.1.2 . . . . . . . . . 11 5.2.3. Timing of Disclosure by ADs and Others . . . . . . . . . . 12 5.3. How Must an IPR Disclosure be Made? . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 5.4. What Must be in an IPR Disclosure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 5.4.1. Content of IPR Disclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 5.4.2. Updating IPR Disclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 5.4.3. Blanket IPR Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 5.5. Licensing Information in an IPR Disclosure . . . . . . . . . 14 5.6. Level of Control over IPR Requiring Disclosure . . . . . . . 15 5.7. Disclosures for Oral Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 5.8. General Disclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 6. Failure to Disclose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 7. Evaluating Alternative Technologies in IETF Working Groups . . 17 8. Change Control for Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 9. Licensing Requirements to Advance Standards Track IETF Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 10. No IPR Disclosures in IETF Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 11. Application to Non-IETF Stream Documents . . . . . . . . . . 19 12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 13. Changes since RFCs 3979 and 4879 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 14. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 14.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 14.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Editors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 3] RFC 8179 IP in IETF Technology May 2017 1. Definitions The following definitions are for terms used in the context of this document. Other terms, including "IESG," "ISOC," "IAB," and "RFC Editor," are defined in [RFC2028]. a. "Alternate Stream": the IAB Document Stream, the IRTF Document Stream, and the Independent Submission Stream, each as defined in Section 5.1 of [RFC4844], along with any future non-IETF streams that might be defined. b. "Blanket IPR Statement" or "Blanket Disclosure": see Section 5.4.3. c. "Contribution": any submission to the IETF intended by the Contributor for publication as all or part of an Internet-Draft or RFC and any statement made within the context of an IETF activity, in each case that is intended to affect the IETF Standards Process or that is related to the activity of an Alternate Stream that has adopted this policy. Such statements include oral statements, as well as written and electronic communications, which are addressed to: o any IETF plenary session, o any IETF working group (WG; see BCP 25) or portion thereof or any WG chair on behalf of the relevant WG, o any IETF "birds of a feather" (BOF) session or portion thereof, o WG design teams (see BCP 25) and other design teams that intend to deliver an output to IETF, or portions thereof, o the IESG, or any member thereof on behalf of the IESG, o the IAB, or any member thereof on behalf of the IAB, o any IETF mailing list, web site, chat room, or discussion board operated by or under the auspices of the IETF, including the IETF list itself, o the RFC Editor or the Internet-Drafts function. Statements made outside of an IETF session, mailing list, or other function, or that are clearly not intended to be input to an IETF activity, group, or function, are not Contributions in the context of this document. And while the IETF's IPR rules apply in all Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 4] RFC 8179 IP in IETF Technology May 2017 cases, not all presentations represent a Contribution. For example, many invited plenary, area-meeting, or research group presentations will cover useful background material, such as general discussions of existing Internet technology and products, and will not be a Contribution. (Some such presentations can represent a Contribution as well, of course). Throughout this document, the term "written Contribution" is used. For purposes of this document, "written" means reduced to a written or visual form in any language and any media, permanent or temporary, including but not limited to traditional documents, email messages, discussion board postings, slide presentations, text messages, instant messages, and transcriptions of oral statements. d. "Contributor": an individual submitting a Contribution e. "Covers" or "Covered": a valid claim of a patent or a patent application (including a provisional patent application) in any jurisdiction, or any other Intellectual Property Right, would necessarily be infringed by the exercise of a right (e.g., making, using, selling, importing, distribution, copying, etc.) with respect to an Implementing Technology. For purposes of this definition, "valid claim" means a claim of any unexpired patent or patent application which shall not have been withdrawn, cancelled, or disclaimed, nor held invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction in an unappealed or unappealable decision. f. "General Disclosure": see Section 5.8. g. "IETF": In the context of this document, the IETF includes all individuals who participate in meetings, working groups, mailing lists, functions, and other activities that are organized or initiated by ISOC, the IESG, or the IAB under the general designation of the Internet Engineering Task Force, or IETF, but solely to the extent of such participation. h. "IETF Documents": RFCs and Internet-Drafts that are published as part of the IETF Standards Process. These are also referred to as "IETF Stream Documents" as defined in Section 5.1.1 of [RFC4844]. i. "IETF Standards Process": the activities undertaken by the IETF in any of the settings described in the above definition of Contribution. The IETF Standards Process may include participation in activities and publication of documents that are not directed toward the development of IETF standards or specifications, such as the development and publication of Informational and Experimental documents (see Section 4 of [RFC2026]). Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 5] RFC 8179 IP in IETF Technology May 2017 j. "IPR" or "Intellectual Property Rights": means a patent, utility model, or similar right that may Cover an Implementing Technology, whether such rights arise from a registration or renewal thereof, or an application therefore, in each case anywhere in the world. See [RFC5378] for a discussion of trademarks. k. "Implementing Technology": a technology that implements an IETF specification or standard. l. "Internet-Draft": a document used in the IETF and RFC Editor processes, as described in Section 2.2 of [RFC2026]. m. "Participating in an IETF discussion or activity": making a Contribution, as described above, or in any other way acting in order to influence the outcome of a discussion relating to the IETF Standards Process. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, acting as a Working Group Chair or Area Director constitutes "Participating" in all activities of the relevant working group(s) he or she is responsible for in an area. "Participant" and "IETF Participant" mean any individual Participating in an IETF discussion or activity. m. "Reasonably and personally known": something an individual knows personally or, because of the job the individual holds, would reasonably be expected to know. This wording is used to indicate that an organization cannot purposely keep an individual in the dark about patents or patent applications just to avoid the disclosure requirement. But this requirement should not be interpreted as requiring the IETF Contributor or Participant (or his or her represented organization, if any) to perform a patent search to find applicable IPR. o. "RFC": the basic publication series for the IETF. RFCs are published by the RFC Editor. (See Section 2.1 of [RFC2026].) 2. Introduction The IETF policies about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), such as patent rights, relative to technologies developed in the IETF are designed to ensure that IETF working groups and Participants have as much information as possible about any IPR constraints on a technical proposal as early as possible in the development process. The policies are intended to benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of IPR holders. This document details the IETF policies concerning IPR related to technology worked on within the IETF. It also describes Bradner & Cont…