TSB 1 ITU-T IPR Policy Presentation by Houlin ZHAO Director, TSB, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the Informal Forum Summit 3-4 December 2002, Geneva Place des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 20 Switzerland Tel: FAX: ITU Home page address: ITU-T IPR Policy

TSB 2 nTo insure that Recommendations can be used by everybody without discrimination nTo exclude the commercial (monopolistic) abuse by a holder of a patent which is embodied fully or partly in a Recommendation Why an ITU-T Patent Policy?

TSB 3 New Environment nIncrease in the number of draft Recommendations involving new technologies associated with patents nInternational competition is increasing, patent holders are therefore less generous than was previously the case nPatent holders are eager to recover some of their costs through patent rights royalties. nNew, small manufacturing companies attempt to benefit from their patent rights nDiscussions in WTO have brought patent rights issues into the public arena

TSB 4 History of ITU-T IPR Policy nCCITT Code of Practice in 1980s and 1990s nCCITT Patent Policy nITU-T Patent Policy and database nPatent Declaration Forms nITU-T Patent Policy Guidelines n Software Copyright Guidelines n CCITT / TSB Directors Ad Hoc Group on IPR

TSB 5 Basic considerations of ITU-T Patent Policy nSimple and straightforward so as to be understood by the non-expert nIts underlying principle is similar to that of other standards making organizations nEarly disclosure and identification of patents/pending patents nDetailed licensing arrangements are left to the parties concerned

TSB 6 nAny ITU-T member should disclose any known or pending patent to TSB nSuch information should be disclosed as soon as possible, in no case later than the date of approval of the Recommendation nContributions to Study Group meetings should identify whether its proposal contains patents or pending patents Early disclosure and identification

TSB 7 nIndividual Patent Licensing Declaration n Common form of Declaration for Common texts between ITU-T and ISO/IEC nGeneral Patent Licensing Declaration Patent Declaration

TSB 8 Three Options Patent holders should declare their choice of option: Option 1)Free license to everybody Option 2)Paid-for license granted on reasonable terms and conditions on a world-wide, non-discriminatory basis (License arrangements are left to the parties concerned. ITU never intervenes in such a negotiation) Option 3)Unwillingness to grant a license

TSB 9 Option 3: Unwillingness to grant a license In this case, the following information should be provided: - patent registration/application number - an indication of which portions of the Recommendation are affected - a description of the patent claims covering the Recommendation ITU-T Patent Policy says: In such a case no Recommendation can be established ! The Guidelines say: Study Group should not be passive but proactive to resolve the problem

TSB 10 Patent Statements Database n Make available to the public information on patent declarations submitted to the TSB The URL for the database is: nItems shown on the Patent Database website: - Recommendation Number - Submitter Organization - Patent policy option chosen - Contact information - Patent information - Date Patent Statement received by TSB

TSB 11 Patent Statements Database (continued ) nThe Database may be viewed as simply raising a flag to alert users that patent licenses must be obtained for applications of a particular Recommendation n TSB does not assure the validity of the information in the database

TSB 12 n Reciprocity The Patent holder shall only be required to license to other Patent holders if these others are also willing to license their patents under options 1 or 2 of the Declaration. n Application Processes - Prerequisites - Submission of contributions - Conduct of meetings - Discovery of patents after publication - Patents held by ITU-T non-member organizations n URL: ITU-T Patent Policy Guidelines

TSB 13 The draft of Software Copyright Guidelines and the associated Declaration Form have just been developed. The refinement of the text is ongoing in the TSB Directors IPR Ad Hoc group. n Guidelines instead of Policy in order to make the rule more flexible. n The structure of the Software Copyright Guidelines is in principle similar to the ITU-T Patent Policy. n However, the Guidelines discourage Study Groups from including copyrighted software in an ITU-T Recommendation. The incorporation of normative software should be applied in exceptional situations: highly complex algorithms requiring exactness such as speech coders. Software Copyright Guidelines

TSB 14 n Options of Software Copyright licensing declaration Similar to the patent declaration, the options are roughly grouped in three categories: Option 1 Free license to everybody 1.1The Software copyright holder waives the copyright. 1.2The holder transfers the Software copyright to ITU on condition that ITU will grant free license on a non- discriminatory basis. 1.3The holder grants a free license on a non- discriminatory basis. Option 2 Paid for license granted on reasonable terms and conditions on a world-wide non-discriminatory basis Option 3 Unwillingness to grant license Software Copyright Guidelines (continued)

TSB 15 n Patent Statements received :918 n General Patent Statements received: 15 Statements received refer to option 2 (reasonable terms and conditions ) : 94% Statistics