A Resource for IPR Policy Creation
One of the important organizational policy documents required for every standards organization, right up there with the organization’s bylaws or charter, the membership agreement, and the committee process is the patent or intellectual property rights policy. This document defines how the organization will handle the IP rights associated with the technical work carried out by the organization, including the requirements of participants declaring what IP they own in the topic, what licenses must be granted to implementors by participant owners, and how these policies are enforced.
The importance of having a well-crafted IPR policy is proven by the recent Rambus case where the U.S. Court of Appeals found that the ill-defined IPR policy and process at the JEDEC consortium led to participants not knowing what was required of them, leaving a situation open to gaming.
Does your organization want to be caught in the middle of a situation like the Rambus case?
As important as the need for a good IPR policy is, this isn’t a topic for the faint of heart. There’s quite a lot to be considered when putting together such an IPR policy for an organization, viewpoints and interests to be taken into account, details to be worked out, decisions to be made, and — gulp — legal counsel to be consulted.
Of course an easy solution, as is the case for many things in life, is to just copy what others have done. But while imitation may be a form a flattery it isn’t always wise as the circumstances for various organizations will differ. That’s not to say that others’ experiences shouldn’t be taken into account, but it does mean that while an existing policy could be taken as a starting point the policy must still be customized for your organization’s specific needs.
A recent publication by the American Bar Association provides an excellent resource for a standards organization looking at developing (or updating) their IPR policy. Published earlier this year is the Standards Development Patent Policy Manual, created by the ABA’s Committee on Technical Standardization and edited by Jorge Contreras. The book is available at www.ababooks.org. It’s a bit pricey at $60 for a short paperback, but has some very useful content. A brief introduction discusses the issues, then sections provide sample text (with options and commentary) for an organizational IPR policy.