Clarification of the Third Party Disclosure Procedure in RFC 3979

Network Working Group                                          T. Narten
Request for Comments: 4879                                           IBM
BCP: 79                                                       April 2007
Updates: 3979
Category: Best Current Practice


   Clarification of the Third Party Disclosure Procedure in RFC 3979

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
   Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).

Abstract

   This document clarifies and updates a single sentence in RFC 3979.
   Specifically, when third party Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
   disclosures are made, the intention is that the IETF Executive
   Director notify the IPR holder that a third party disclosure has been
   filed, and to ask the IPR holder whether they have any disclosure
   that needs to be made, per applicable RFC 3979 rules.

1.  Introduction

   This document clarifies and updates a single sentence in RFC 3979
   [RFC3979].  Specifically, when third party IPR disclosures are made,
   the intention is that the IETF Executive Director notify the IPR
   holder that a third party disclosure has been filed, and to ask the
   IPR holder whether they have any disclosure that needs to be made,
   per applicable RFC 3979 rules.

   This document updates RFC 3979.

2.  The Fix

   RFC 3979, Section 4 (C), states:

    (C) Where Intellectual Property Rights have been disclosed for IETF
        Documents as provided in Section 6 of this document, the IETF
        Executive Director shall request from the discloser of such IPR,
        a written assurance that upon approval by the IESG for
        publication as RFCs of the relevant IETF specification(s), all
        persons will be able to obtain the right to implement, use,
        distribute and exercise other rights with respect to
        Implementing Technology under one of the licensing options
        specified in Section 6.5 below unless such a statement has
        already been submitted.

   In the case of third party disclosures, it makes no sense to ask the
   discloser about potential licensing terms, since they do not own the
   IPR.  Instead, it only makes sense to ask the IPR holder.

   This document updates RFC 3979 by changing the word "discloser" to
   "holder" in the above text.

3.  Security Considerations

   This document has no known security implications.

4.  Normative Reference

   [RFC3979]  Bradner, S., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
              Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.

Author's Address

   Thomas Narten
   IBM Corporation
   3039 Cornwallis Ave.
   PO Box 12195 - BRQA/502
   Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2195

   Phone: 919-254-7798
   EMail: narten@us.ibm.com

Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
   contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
   retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE IETF TRUST AND
   THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS
   OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF
   THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Intellectual Property

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
   made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
   on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
   found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at
   ietf-ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.