The W3C Patent Policy governs the handling of patents in the process
of producing Web standards. The goal of this policy is to assure that
Recommendations produced under this policy can be implemented on a
Royalty-Free (RF) basis.
This document has been updated with editorial corrections in the
5 February 2004 (updated 1 August 2017)
W3C Patent Policy.
This is the 5 February 2004 version of the W3C Patent Policy. The
W3C Patent Policy Transition
Procedure describes how W3C is implementing this patent
policy.
This document has been reviewed by W3C Members and other interested
parties and has been endorsed by the W3C Director as the W3C Patent
Policy. It is a stable document and may be used as reference material
or cited as a normative reference from another document. W3C's role in
making this policy is to provide a stable policy for handling patent
claims in the context of W3C Recommendations and to enhance the
functionality and interoperability of the Web. This policy was
produced by the W3C Patent
Policy Working Group.
The only differences between this version and the 20 May
2003 version that was reviewed by the W3C Membership are updated
links to the W3C Process Document [PROCESS] and a change to one
administrative detail (allowing the Team to use other mechanisms than
email for disclosures).
Please report errors in this document to the www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
mailing list (public
archive). The list of
known errors is public.
The English version of this policy is the only normative
version.
For implementation material and other informative documents, please
see the W3C
Patent Policy Overview.
This patent policy describes:
- licensing goals for W3C Recommendations
- licensing obligations that Working Group participants will
undertake as a condition of Working Group participation, along with
means of excluding specific patents from those obligations
- the definition of a W3C Royalty-Free license
- disclosure rules for W3C Members
- an exception handling process for situations in which the
Royalty-Free status of a specification comes under question
- definition of Essential Claims
All numbered sections of this document (1-8), as well as hyperlinks
to material within and outside of this document, are normative.
In order to promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks
to issue Recommendations that can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis. Subject to the conditions
of this policy, W3C will not approve a Recommendation if it is aware
that Essential Claims exist which are not
available on Royalty-Free terms.
To this end, Working Group charters will include a reference to this
policy and a requirement that specifications produced by the Working
Group will be implementable on an RF basis, to the best ability of the
Working Group and the Consortium.
The following obligations shall apply to all participants in W3C
Working Groups. These obligations will be referenced from each Working
Group charter and Calls for Participation.
As a condition of participating in a Working Group, each participant
(W3C Members, W3C Team members, invited experts, and members of the
public) shall agree to make available under W3C RF
licensing requirements any Essential
Claims related to the work of that particular Working Group. This
requirement includes Essential Claims that the participant owns and any
that the participant has the right to license without obligation of
payment or other consideration to an unrelated third party. With the
exception of the provisions of section 4 below, W3C RF licensing
obligations made concerning the work the particular Working Group and
described in this policy are binding on participants for the life of
the patents in question and encumber the patents containing Essential Claims, regardless of changes in
participation status or W3C Membership.
Only the affirmative act of joining a Working Group, or otherwise
agreeing to the licensing terms described here, will obligate a Member
to the W3C RF licensing commitments. Mere Membership in W3C alone,
without other factors, does not give rise to the RF licensing
obligation under this policy.
At the time a W3C
Member Submission [PROCESS,
section 11] is made, all Submitters and any others who provide patent
licenses associated with the submitted document must indicate whether
or not each entity (Submitters and other licensors) will offer a
license according to the W3C RF licensing
requirements for any portion of the Submission that is subsequently
incorporated in a W3C Recommendation. The W3C Team may acknowledge the
Submission if the answer to the licensing commitment is either
affirmative or negative, and shall not acknowledge the Submission if no
response is provided.
Invited experts participate in Working Groups in their individual
capacity. An invited expert is only obliged to license those claims
over which s/he exercises control.
Under the following conditions, Working Group participants may
exclude specifically identified and disclosed Essential Claims from the
overall W3C RF licensing requirements:
Specific Essential Claims may be excluded from the W3C RF licensing requirements by a
participant who seeks to remain in the Working Group only if that
participant indicates its refusal to license specific claims no later
than 150 days after the publication of the first
public Working Draft [PROCESS, section 7.4.1] by specifically
disclosing Essential Claims that will not
be licensed on W3C RF terms. A participant who excludes Essential
Claims may continue to participate in the Working Group.
If any claims are made essential by the final Recommendation
[PROCESS, section 7.1.1] as a
result of subject matter not present or apparent in the latest public
Working
Draft [PROCESS, section
7.1.1] published within 90 days after the first public Working Draft,
the participant may exclude these new Essential Claims, and only these
claims, by using this exclusion procedure within 60 days after the
publication of the Last
Call Working Draft [PROCESS, section 7.4.2]. After that
point, no claims may be excluded. (Note that if material new subject
matter is added after Last Call, then a new Last Call draft will have
to be produced, thereby allowing another exclusion period for 60 days
after that most recent Last Call draft.)
A participant may resign from the Working Group within 90 days after
the publication of the first public Working Draft and be excused from
all licensing commitments arising out of Working Group
participation.
If a participant leaves the Working Group later than 90 days after
the publication of the first public Working Draft, that participant is
only bound to license Essential Claims based on subject matter
contained in the latest Working Draft published before the participant
resigned from the Working Group. In addition, departing participants
have 60 days after their actual resignation to exclude Essential Claims
made essential by documents not referenced in the Call for Exclusion
(see section 4.5) if:
- such claims are essential to subject matter that is contained in
the latest Working Draft published before the participant resigns,
and
- such subject matter is not present or apparent in the latest
Working Draft published within 90 days after the first public Working
Draft.
The participant follows the same procedures specified in this
section 4 for excluding claims in issued patents, published
applications, and unpublished applications. Participants resigning from
a Working Group are still subject to all disclosure obligations
described in section 6.
Participants who join a Working Group more than 90 days after the
publication of the first public Working Draft must exclude Essential
Claims covered in the latest Working Draft published within 90 days
after the first public Working Draft at the later of 150 days after the
publication of the first public Working Draft or upon joining the
Working Group.
Exclusion of Essential Claims in pending, unpublished applications
follows the procedures for exclusion of issued claims and claims in
published applications in section 4.1 through 4.3, except that the
final deadline for exclusion of unpublished claims is at Last Call plus
60 days for any material, regardless of whether or not it was contained
in the documents referenced in the Call for Exclusion document.
Nevertheless, participants have a good faith obligation to make such
exclusions as soon as is practical after the publication of the first
Working Draft that includes the relevant technology.
Any exclusion of an Essential Claim in an unpublished application
must provide either:
- the text of the filed application; or
- identification of the specific part(s) of the specification whose
implementation makes the excluded claim essential.
If option 2 is chosen, the effect of the exclusion will be limited
to the identified part(s) of the specification.
A Call for Exclusion will be issued by the Working Group Team
Contact indicating the relevant documents against which participants
must make exclusion statements as well as precise dates and deadlines
for making any exclusions. In case there is any dispute about the dates
for exclusion, the dates indicated in the Call for Exclusion are
controlling. The Call for Exclusion will be sent to the Working Group
mailing list and the Advisory Committee Representatives of all
organizations participating in the Working Group. In the event that a
Working Group issues more than one Recommendation-track document, the
exclusion procedure will be employed for each series of documents
individually.
With respect to a Recommendation developed under this policy, a W3C Royalty-Free license shall mean a
non-assignable, non-sublicensable license to make, have made, use,
sell, have sold, offer to sell, import, and distribute and dispose of
implementations of the Recommendation that:
1. shall be available to all, worldwide, whether or not they are W3C
Members;
2. shall extend to all Essential Claims
owned or controlled by the licensor;
3. may be limited to implementations of the Recommendation, and to
what is required by the Recommendation;
4. may be conditioned on a grant of a reciprocal RF license (as
defined in this policy) to all Essential
Claims owned or controlled by the licensee. 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.
5. may not be conditioned on payment of royalties, fees or other
consideration;
6. may be suspended with respect to any licensee when licensor is
sued by licensee for infringement of claims essential to implement any
W3C Recommendation;
7. 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: choice of law and dispute resolution;
8. shall not be considered accepted by an implementer who manifests
an intent not to accept the terms of the W3C
Royalty-Free license as offered by the licensor.
License term:
9. The RF license conforming to the requirements in this policy
shall be made available by the licensor as long as the Recommendation
is in effect. The term of such license shall be for the life of the
patents in question, subject to the limitations of 5(10).
10. If the Recommendation is rescinded by W3C, then no new licenses
need be granted but any licenses granted before the Recommendation was
rescinded shall remain in effect.
All Working Group participants are encouraged to provide a contact
from which licensing information can be obtained and other relevant
licensing information. Any such information will be made publicly
available along with the patent disclosures for the Working Group in
question.
Disclosure is required when both of the following are true:
- an individual in a Member organization receives a disclosure
request as described in section 6.3; and
- that individual has actual knowledge of a patent which the
individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) with respect to the
specification for which disclosure is requested.
Anyone in a Member organization who receives a disclosure request
and who has such knowledge must inform that AC Rep. Where disclosure is
required, the AC Rep will do so.
The disclosure obligation as to a particular claim is satisfied if
the holder of the claim has made a commitment to license that claim
under W3C RF licensing requirements and the claim
is no longer subject to exclusion under section 4. An Essential Claim
is no longer subject to exclusion if a patent holder has affirmatively
agreed to license the Essential Claim (effectively waiving its right to
exclude such patent under section 4) or if the relevant exclusion
period under section 4 has lapsed.
Disclosure requests will be included in the "Status of This
Document" section of each Recommendation track document as it reaches
each new maturity level (Working Draft, Last Call Working Draft,
Candidate Recommendation, Proposed Recommendation, Recommendation).
Separate requests may be issued by the W3C to any party suspected of
having knowledge of Essential Claims. Such disclosure requests will
instruct the recipient to respond through their AC Rep (in the case of
Members) or a W3C contact (in the case of non-Members). Disclosure
requests other than those that appear in the specification itself
should be directed to the AC Rep.
Disclosure requests will provide administrative details for
making disclosures.
Disclosure statements must include:
- the patent number, but need not mention specific claims
- the Working Group and/or Recommendation to which it applies