History of Ecma Rules and Patent Policy

29 June 2011

Michael Breidthardt

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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

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Rules and ProceduresDecision 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

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Rules and ProceduresDecision 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

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Rules and ProceduresTechnical 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

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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

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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

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Evolution of Ecma code of conduct in patent matters

• 1st 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)

• 2nd, 3rd and 4th revision (1988, 1994, 1995 and 2002)−Time limits shortened and registered mail requirements removed

taking account of electronic working methods

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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 holder’s 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

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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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