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.
























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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.










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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: [email protected]









































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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
  [email protected].

Acknowledgement

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







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