FW: Adopting the new Patent Policy in your Working Group (Survey)

Folks,

As you know, W3C has adopted the new W3C Patent Policy. According to the old policy, patent commitments for a W3C Recommendation were expected to be made by the time when a Recommendation was promoted to the Proposed Recommendation status (after the implementation and conformance testing phase was completed). This was obviously a concern for many implementers who would be asked to implement a technical solution prescribed by a Candidate Recommendation without knowing if an when a relevant IP would be available under the royalty-free license.

The new patent policy (and the W3C Process that was amended at the same time) aim to fix this by seeking patent commitments be made by the time a recommendation is reaching the Candidate Recommendation stage, when the implementations are expected to be developed. However, there is a caveat – the applicable patent policy is specified by the WG charter, and any change/update in the WG charter involves the process of rejoining the WG. I.e., all existing members would have to expressly state their agreements and commitments to the new W3C Patent Policy by rejoining the WG, something your Advisory Committee representative should do [probably after a consultation with internal IP counsel].

I believe that this WG is in prefect position to go through this process of adopting the new patent policy, as we are just about to enter the new development stage for a recommendation-track deliverable. As part of this process, we can also discuss any changes we would like to make in the existing WG charter (https://www.w3.org/Fonts/WG/webfonts-2018.html).

Let us make this a topic for an informative discussion during today’s WG Zoom call, I will send a reminder with the call details now.

Thank you,
Vlad


From: Philippe Le Hegaret <plh@w3.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 3, 2020 2:37 PM
To: Chairs <chairs@w3.org>
Subject: Adopting the new Patent Policy in your Working Group (Survey)

Dear Chairs,

We would like to know if your Working Group is interested in adopting
the new W3C Patent Policy (Version of 15 September 2020).

As we announced in August [1], we are surveying the Working Groups whose
current charter extends beyond March 2021 (list included below).

This is *solely* for the purpose of adopting the new Patent Policy. If
your Working Group would like to make other changes to its charter, we
ask you instead to work to your Team Contact in order to draft a new
charter.

Please indicate your Group interest using this online form:

https://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/34786/pp2020-survey/<https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/ue6oCR60nPhrBkVlfPx059>

The deadline for responses is 04:59 UTC/GMT on 2020-10-28 (23:59, Boston
time on 2020-10-27).

---

Existing Working Groups who wish to take advantage of the enhanced
Patent Policy of 2020 needs to recharter in order to adopt the new
Patent Policy, due to the impact on the patent commitments for
specifications on the Recommendation track.

Participants will be asked to rejoin the Working Groups once the new
charter is approved by the Director.

In order to avoid sending simultaneously multiple calls for review of
all current Working Group charters, we will update existing charters
that extend beyond March 2021.

The new Patent Policy update is to secure those royalty-free commitments
at earlier Candidate phases, supporting unencumbered implementation and
use even as specifications continue to evolve. This change helps to
de-risk Web experimentation and reinforce access to the Web's technology
as common infrastructure.

For all Working Groups who wish to adopt the new Patent Policy, the W3C
Director will approve a revised charter on the December 1, triggering a
45-day period for participants to rejoin the Working Group (until
January 15, 2021).

For the Working Groups who prefer to wait, they may remain under their
current charter, but must switch to the new Patent Policy upon their
next rechartering.

If you have any questions or need further information, please contact
Philippe Le Hegaret, at plh@w3.org<mailto:plh@w3.org>.

Thank you,

Philippe Le Hegaret
W3C Project Management Lead

[1] https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-ac-members/2020JulSep/0030.html<https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/4vp1CVOkr7Tl9LvKuJ6lnS>