Re: Last Call: <draft-polk-ipr-disclosure-03.txt> (Promoting Compliance with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Disclosure Rules) to Informational RFC
Hi Stephan, thanks for the feedback and sorry about the slow reply.
On 4/30/12 11:19 AM, Stephan Wenger wrote:
> Hi,
> Here are a few comments to this draft.
> Stephan
>
> (1) Section 3.1, final paragraph. An IETF disclosure has to be made
> against a Contribution. In the case described in this paragraph, the
> Contribution may not have been made at the time of the Disclosure request,
> and, therefore, it would be impossible to make a Disclosure. For example,
> if someone wants to discuss a technology verbally, you cannot make an IPR
> disclosure before the words have been uttered. I would remove this
> paragraph. Alternatively, limit it to "materials you plan to make
> available at the meeting" in the sprit it of section 4.1.
I see your point: one can't realistically be expected to file a
disclosure before making a Contribution. Tim and I will discuss together
how we'd like to make this clearer. One possibility is to use a less
formal method, e.g., providing information about known IPR in the
materials to be presented or posting to the relevant discussion list
ahead of time (rather than filing a formal disclosure).
> (2) Section 3.2, "silence may be interpreted as a weak "No".". This
> statement is IMO not supported by the IETF patent policy, and should
> therefore be removed. Generally speaking, any additional burden to
> non-Contributors beyond making them aware of the voluntary disclosure
> opportunity IMP constitutes a policy change and must be avoided.
I think you're right that absence of evidence can't be interpreted as
evidence of absence. If Tim agrees, we'll stike that sentence.
> (3) Section 3.3. I would replace "author" with "authors and other
> Contributors". Or "known Contributors", "prominent Contributors", or
> something like this. It is entirely possible, and in fact not uncommon,
> that non-author Contributors influence the technology choices of I-Ds.
> One possible metric for identifying some of these Contributors would be a
> review of the Acknowledgement section many I-Ds include. I see this
> mentioned in section 3.4; I would shift (or duplicate?) the burden of
> double-checking with Contributors to the WG chairs as WGLC.
Your suggestion of "authors and other Contributors" seems right.
> (4) Section 4.2. Suggest to include Contributors in the spirit of comment
> (3) above.
Agreed.
> (5) Section A.1. The email has a logical structure, but sometimes a
> logical structure may not have the best effect. As written, people will
> probably not read it in its entirety, but will give up once its clear that
> it includes legalese. Suggest to move the final paragraph "As FOO WG
> chairs" to the top, and put the formal justification stuff at the end.
>
> (6) Section A.2: I would substitute "Dear FOO WG" with "Dear FOO WG and
> especially authors and Contributors:"
>
> (7) Section A.2, third paragraph, sentence "We will not be able to advance
> this document to the next stage until we have received a reply from each
> author and listed contributor." If this sentence starts appearing with
> some consistency in IETF WGs, then we have a de-facto policy change
> (requiring affirmative negative declarations). Suggest to soften the
> language: "we may not be able to advance" or "it does not appear to be
> sensible to us to advance"
>
> (8) Section A.2, fourth paragraph: I would express this along the
> following: "you are reminded of your opportunity for a voluntary IPR
> disclosure under BCP79 section xxx. Unless you want to make such a
> voluntary disclosure, please do not reply."
>
> (9) Section A.3, see previous comments (7) and (8).
>
> (10) Section A.4, see previous comment (7)
>
> (11) Section A.5, see previous comment (7)
Thanks for those suggestions. We'll look at those sample messages again,
but on a first look I think all your points are spot-on.
Peter
--
Peter Saint-Andre
https://stpeter.im/
[IETF Annoucements]
[IETF Obscurity Interest]
[IETF]
[IP Storage]
[Yosemite News]
[Linux]
[Pilates]
[Linux SCTP]
[Linux Newbies]
[Fedora Users]