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XML Protocol Working Group

Intellectual Property Rights Statements

This page provides a single source for all Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) statements that are associated with XML Protocol (XMLP) and provided by members of the XMLP Working Group (WG). Note that the rechartering in late october 2002 changed the IPR section.

The following statements are the patent disclosures and license commitments associated with the XML Protocol Working Group (WG) as required by the W3C Current Patent Practice (CPP). These statements may be modified at any time during the Recommendation track process.

W3C does not take a position regarding the validity or scope of any IPR or any other right that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of XMLP technology. Furthermore, the W3C does not take a position on the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available. Copyright of WG deliverables is vested in the W3C.

Table 1 summarizes the most recent IPR statements for each XMLP WG member. The list covers all current XMLP WG members in good standing. Table 2 summarizes the most recent IPR statements for each past XMLP WG member. The 'License Type' column is a W3C Team short-hand summary of the Member's licensing terms as one of two general types of licenses: 1) Royalty-Free (RF), or 2) Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory terms (RAND). This designation is an informal summary of the terms offered by the disclosing party. The precise meaning of the license is determined exclusively by the license language provided by the patent holder. Implementers or others who require information about the licensing terms offered by a patent holder should refer to the licensing statements made by the patent holder itself. W3C Team summaries have no legal effect, have not been approved by the licensors and should not be relied to determine the rights or obligations of implementers. Members who are listed in the specification, but who are not listed in Table 1, have stated they have no IPR relating to the XMLP WG's specifications. License Type is "unknown".

* means no Call for Review (CfR) or Call for Participation (CfP) sent for the new charter

# means statement incomplete per new charter

? means that the statement needs clarification to decide if it is complete or not

All the members in good standing made complete IPR statements.

The IPR statements listed in Tables 1 and 2 were originally disclosed to the [email protected], per the XMLP WG old Charter and the July 19, 2001 Process Document, and the current charter (Royalty Free Working Group, as described in the CPP). However, the [email protected] mailing list archive is not publically readable, and so to provide a public record of these statements (per the W3C Current Patent Pratice document), they have been reproduced below. Note that in the event of any discrepancy between a reproduced statement and an archived statement, the archived statement will be the authoritative text.

webMethods

IPR Statement of webMethods, Inc.

This statement supercedes all other statements by webMethods for the Web
Services activity, including but not limited to the XML Protocol working
Group. WebMethods authorizes W3C to make this statement public.

webMethods has not performed a search of its patent portfolio for the
purpose of determining whether webMethods has any patents or patent
applications (collectively "Patents") that relate to this activity.
webMethods believes that it may have Patents relevant to the Web Services
activity and, to the extent that it does, webMethods is not willing to waive
its rights in its relevant Patents, if any.  However, subject to the
conditions in this statement, webMethods' licensing policy for Patents will
be upon adoption of this activity or of its contribution as a
Recommendation, to negotiate licenses on reasonable and non-discriminatory
terms under applicable webMethods intellectual property rights essential to
implement and use the technology proposed in its contribution in products
that are consistent with this activity or that comply with the
Recommendation but only for such purposes.  This policy shall apply only to
Patent claims that read on Essential Technology as defined below. This
undertaking remains valid only as long as such activity or Recommendation
exists and applies only to parties who have made an equivalent undertaking.

webMethods expressly reserves all other rights it may have in the material
and subject matter of its contribution. The licensing commitments made
hereunder do not include any license for implementation of other published
specifications developed elsewhere.

The definition of essential technology is taken from the W3C Patent Policy
Framework Proposal-W3C Working Draft 28 September 2000: "Definition of
Essential Technology".

1. "Essential" means that an implementation of the specification would
necessarily infringe claims of a patent or patent application owned or
controlled by the Member at any time during the life of the Working Group
and the specification. A claim is necessarily infringed hereunder only when
it is not possible to avoid infringing it because there is no commercially
plausible non-infringing alternative for implementing the specification,
including the protocols, application program interfaces, service provider
interfaces, and/or data structures disclosed with particularity in the
specification in order to enable products to interoperate, interconnect or
communicate as defined within the specification.

2. Notwithstanding the foregoing, essential claims shall not include any
claims other than as set forth above even if contained in the same patent as
essential claims; or that read solely on any implementations of any portion
of the specification that are not required by the specification, or that, if
licensed, would require a payment of royalties by the licensor to
unaffiliated third parties. Moreover, essential claims shall not include (i)
any enabling technologies that may be necessary to make or use any product
or portion thereof that complies with the specification but are not
themselves expressly set forth in the specification (e.g., semiconductor
manufacturing technology, compiler technology, object oriented technology,
basic operating system technology, and the like); or (ii) the implementation
of other published standards developed elsewhere and merely referred to in
the body of the specification, or (iii) any portions of any product and any
combinations thereof the purpose or function of which is not required for
compliance with the specification. For purposes of this definition, the
specification shall be deemed to include only architectural and
interconnection requirements and shall not include any implementation
examples unless such implementation examples are expressly identified as
being included as part of the specification.

webMethods' contribution and the information contained herein is provided on
an "AS IS" basis and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law,
webMethods provides its contribution AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and hereby
disclaims all other warranties and conditions, either express, implied or
statutory, including, but not limited to, any (if any) implied warranties,
duties or conditions of merchantability, of fitness for a particular
purpose, of accuracy or completeness of responses, of results, of
workmanlike effort, of lack of viruses, and of lack of negligence, all with
regard to the contribution.  ALSO, THERE IS NO WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF
TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, QUIET POSSESSION, CORRESPONDENCE TO DESCRIPTION OR
NON-INFRINGEMENT WITH REGARD TO THE CONTRIBUTION.

IN NO EVENT WILL WEBMETHODS BE LIABLE TO ANY OTHER PARTY INCLUDING THE W3C
AND ITS MEMBERS FOR THE COST OF PROCURING SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, LOST
PROFITS, LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF DATA, OR ANY INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL,
PUNITIVE, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR SPECIAL DAMAGES WHETHER UNDER CONTRACT, TORT,
WARRANTY, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THIS OR ANY OTHER
AGREEMENT RELATING TO THIS DOCUMENT, WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PARTY HAD ADVANCE
NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Microsoft

Microsoft is prepared to grant a non-sublicenseable license to essential 
claims that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of the
Recommendation, on Royalty-Free terms as defined in the November 14, 2002 
Patent Policy Working Draft [1], provided a reciprocal license is granted to
Microsoft. A claim is necessarily infringed only when it is not possible to 
avoid infringing it because there is no non-infringing alternative for 
implementing normative portions of the Recommendation.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-patent-policy-20021114/

Epicentric

[Permission to make statement public not yet granted]

Tradia

[Permission to make statement public not yet granted]

Ericsson

Declaration of Ericsson (RAND):

Ericsson may or may not own patents or patent applications which apply to
the "...XML Protocol..." specifications of the W3C. If implementation of a
W3C recommendation based on the "...XML Protocol..." specification requires
the use of Ericsson patents, Ericsson will grant, upon written request, a
non-exclusive license under such patents on reasonable and
non-discriminatory terms. Ericsson expressly disclaims any and all
warranties regarding this "Contribution" including any warranty that this
"Contribution" does not violate the rights of others or is fit for a
particular purpose.

The definitions of "Essential Claims," "Member," "Affiliate," "RAND
License," and "Royalty-Free License" in effect for the above statement are
those found in the W3C Patent Policy Framework dated 16 August 2001, located
at <http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-patent-policy-20010816/>.

$Date: 2004/04/23 14:31:19 $