History of Ecma Rules and Patent Policy 29 June 2011 Michael Breidthardt

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Rules & Procedures The Ecma Bylaws and Rules are on purpose kept very compact and simple aim is quick and effective standardization, required in today's ICT world. The principles of the By-Laws and Rules have been very stable since the beginning in 1961, only some adjustment and enhancements e.g. introduction of new Membership Classes Ecma working structures are small in general (15 companies or less), working fast, consensus easy to achieve Ecma part of the larger standardization landscape our choice to have our standards as final product or to propose it as intermediate step - teaming up with other SDOs, e.g. when doing fast-track submissions liaison partners: generally larger, with more complex rules, longer process

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Rules and Procedures Decision Process Two decision levels: Technical: TC, TG with technical experts Managerial: General Assembly (GA)/Coordinating Committee (CC) Five membership categories, to reflect the diversity of stakeholders in the ICT industry: Paying: Ordinary (OM), Associate (AM), Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME), Small Private Company (SPC) No charge: Not-for-Profit (NFP) Note: Members are organizations, not individuals

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Rules and Procedures Decision Process Voting: Simple majority: technical (TC) and simple managerial (GA) issues such as the creation of a new TC, budget changes: in a TC each member can vote, and has one vote; in the GA only Ordinary members can vote, and have one vote each. Qualified majority (two thirds of all Ordinary members must be in favour): GA issues like publications, budget, new members, new membership types, expulsion, changes of membership class, By-laws, Rules, and IPR Note: Voting in a TC or TG is very rare

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Rules and Procedures Technical Work New Work: several (3, or more) existing or potential Ecma members must support the proposal: If it is a new work area, the GA has to approve it by simple majority -> a new Technical Committee (TC) is created to develop the standard If the work fits in an existing TC, then the decision is being made by the TC itself Public reviews made possible a few years ago, process defined, use is not systematic (by topic, TC choice to use it) Input to and review of intermediate drafts either from general public or targeted at organization in liaison Early information of Liaison partners

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Evolution of Ecma code of conduct in patent matters One of the first SDOs that had a Patent Policy Adopted at the General Assembly of March 1963

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Evolution of Ecma code of conduct in patent matters A few principles of the original policy No standard should be approved if there is an identified patent and no license is available to implementers on RAND terms In case such patents become known later and no commitment to license on RAND terms is available, standard needs to withdrawn For pending patent applications of Ecma members, which are later obtained later, a positive vote on standard or continuation in the development binds the member to license such patents on RAND terms TC had to create a 'survey report' on the patent situation for a draft standard Statements related to patents owned by the companies participating in the TC List of patents of 3rd parties, which are known by the members of the TC If licensing problems were found an ad-hoc committee was created to find solutions

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Evolution of Ecma code of conduct in patent matters 1 st rev. in June 1966 Patent survey report eliminated, instead each member was asked by registered mail 4 month before adoption about possible patents they may have or may know of Clarified member's obligation to license on RAND terms (unless the member explicitly states, in response to registered mail request, that the member is NOT willing to license on RAND terms) 2 nd, 3 rd and 4 th revision (1988, 1994, 1995 and 2002) Time limits shortened and registered mail requirements removed taking account of electronic working methods

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Evolution of Ecma code of conduct in patent matters Complete revision of patent policy in Dec 2009 following adoption of joint ITU/ISO/IEC patent policy Alignment as much as possible with joint policy While keeping member's obligation to license unless explicitly stated otherwise Introducing major improvements regarding process, it clarifies... – that no patent search is required – that different patents of a patent holder may be subject to different licensing statement options (RAND, RF) – to what extent a patent holder may re-designate a previously committed license statement option. – the extent to which a patent holders licensing commitment will also apply to revised versions of an Ecma standard – the process for a 'blocking' patent situation Ecma again at the forefront of patent policies

Rue du Rhône CH-1204 Geneva - T: F: Experimental Policy on Submission, Inclusion and Licensing of Software Provide guidance, rules and procedures relating to the submission, inclusion and licensing of Software which may become part of an Ecma International Standard. Currently only for TC 39 (Ecma Script) Software in standards requires different copyright licenses than descriptive text in standards. – Copyright Disclaimer permits anyone to copy a Standard, – But it does not permit others to modify the Standard or extract portions of the Standard. – Copyright Disclaimer does not include a grant which would allow the copying and modification of example software from a Standard in order to run the example on an actual implementation of the Standard. Two licenses Contributor license (confirmation that he owns the copyright, no other software copyright license needed,...) Software Copyright License (based on BSD license) Gaining experience first, then decision if generally applied

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