RFC 3668 (rfc3668) - Page 1 of 17
Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group S. Bradner
Request for Comments: 3668 Harvard University
BCP: 79 February 2004
Updates: 2028, 2026
Category: Best Current Practice
Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology
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 Internet Society (2004). All Rights Reserved.
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 about any IPR constraints on a technical proposal as
possible. The policies are also intended to benefit the Internet
community and the public at large, while respecting the legitimate
rights of IPR holders. This memo details 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 memo updates RFC 2026 and, with RFC 3667, replaces Section 10 of
RFC 2026. This memo also updates paragraph 4 of Section 3.2 of RFC
2028, for all purposes, including reference [2] in RFC 2418.
Table of Contents
1. Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Contributions to the IETF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. General Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2. Rights and Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. Actions for Documents for which IPR Disclosure(s) Have Been
Received . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1. No Determination of Reasonable and Non-discriminatory
Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Notice to be included in RFCs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. IPR Disclosures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1. Who must make an IPR disclosure? . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Bradner Best Current Practice