W3C  
SVG 1.0 Patent Statements

This document has been superceeded by the generic SVG Disclosures page. It remains here for historical purposes and to provide more information on the licensing terms that companies provided for the SVG 1.0 Specification.

Latest Updates: Apple provide royalty-free license for their patent. Adobe and Canon clarify their royalty-free positions.

The following statements are the patent disclosures and license commitments associated with the SVG 1.0 Recommendation as of 4 September, 2001 and provided by members of the SVG 1.0 Working Group as required by W3C procedure.

W3C does not take a position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property right or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology, nor the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available. Copyright of WG deliverables is vested in the W3C.

Summary

Patent Statements for SVG 1.0

This table summarizes patent statements for SVG 1.0 that were made by SVG WG members in good standing. Members were asked to provide patent disclosures and licensing statements for Essential Claims in the SVG 1.0 specification when it was moving to Proposed Recommendation status. The 'license summary' column is a W3C Team characterization of the Member's statement into one of three general types of licenses: 1) Royalty-free, 2) Reasonable and non-discriminatory terms (RAND), or 3) no statement regarding IPR has been made. Members who offered a royalty free license were not required to declare patents. This summary is not offered to suggest the exact licensing terms. The precise terms of any licence, however, are governed entirely by the Member's statement. Please note that the links to the original IPR statements are only available to W3C members, but the statements themselves are available below.

Summary of SVG 1.0 Patent Statements from SVG 1.0 WG members
Member Name Patent Declaration License Summary License Statement
Adobe None Royalty-Free http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001OctDec/0429.html
Apple Patent: US 5379129 Royalty-Free for that patent http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-pag/2001Dec/0000.html
Bitflash None Royalty-Free http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001AprJun/0306.html
Canon None Royalty-Free http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001AprJun/0278.html
CSIRO Australia None Royalty-Free http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001AprJun/0278.html
IBM None RAND http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001AprJun/0302.html
ILOG None Royalty-Free http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001AprJun/0254.html
Eastman Kodak Patent: US 5459819 RAND http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001JulSep/0373.html
Quark None RAND http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001JulSep/0200.html
Schema Software None Royalty-Free http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001AprJun/0259.html
Sun Microsystems None Royalty-Free http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-svg-wg/2001AprJun/0300.html

Provided patent statements for SVG 1.0

Adobe Systems Incorporated
IPR Declaration
SVG 1.0 Specification
October 24, 2001

The following is the IPR declaration of Adobe Systems Incorporated ("Adobe") for the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Specification dated September 4, 2001 (the "Recommendation). This declaration applies only to the unmodified content of the Recommendation.

Adobe agrees to negotiate Royalty-Free Licenses (as defined below) under any Essential Claims (as defined below) reading on the Recommendation.  Except as expressly granted herein, Adobe reserves all rights it may have in any of its intellectual property.

The following definitions of "Essential Claims," "RAND License" and "Royalty-Free License" are taken from the W3C Patent Policy Framework, Working Draft dated August 16, 2001.

"Essential Claims" shall mean all claims in any patent or patent application with an effective filing date within one year and one day after the publication of the first Public Working Draft, in any jurisdiction in the world, that a Member (or a licensor or licensee, with reference to entities other than Members) owns, or under which a Member (or a licensor or licensee) has the right to grant licenses without obligation of payment or other consideration to an unrelated third party, that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of the Recommendation.  A claim is necessarily infringed hereunder only when it is not possible to avoid infringing it because there is no non-infringing alternative for implementing the required portions of the Recommendation.  Existence of a non-infringing alternative shall be judged based on the state-of-the-art at the time the specification becomes a Recommendation.

The following are expressly excluded from and shall not be deemed to constitute Essential Claims:

  1. any claims other than as set forth above even if contained in the same patent as Essential Claims; and
  2. claims which would be infringed only by

For purposes of this definition, the Recommendation shall be deemed to include only architectural and interoperability requirements and shall not include any implementation examples or any other material that merely illustrates the requirements of the Recommendation.

"RAND License" shall mean a license that:

  1. shall be available to all implementers worldwide, whether or not they are W3C Members;
  2. shall extend to all Essential Claims owned or controlled by the licensor and its Affiliates (except at described in section 8.2 concerning licenses relating to Contributions);
  3. may be limited to implementation of the Recommendation, and to what is required by the Recommendation;
  4. may be conditioned on a grant of a reciprocal RAND License to all Essential Claims owned or controlled by the licensee and its Affiliates.  For example, a reciprocal license may be required to be available to all, and a reciprocal license may itself be conditioned on a further reciprocal license from all (including, in the case of a license to a Contribution, the original licensee);
  5. may be conditioned on payment of reasonable, non-discriminatory royalties or fees;
  6. may not impose any further conditions or restrictions on the use of any technology, intellectual property rights, or other restrictions on behavior of the licensee, but may include reasonable, customary terms relating to operation or maintenance of the license relationship such as the following:  audit (when relevant to fees), choice of law, and dispute resolution.

"Royalty-Free License" also called "RF License" shall have the same characteristics as a RAND License, except that a Royalty-Free License:

  1. may not be conditioned on payment of royalties, fees or other consideration except for the conditions permitted in the clauses of RAND License other than clause 5.
  2. may require that all licensees make any Essential Claims they control available to all on a non-royalty basis.
  3. shall not be considered accepted by an implementer who manifests an intent not to accept the terms of the Royalty-Free License as offered by the licensor.

Apple IPR Statement: 17 December 2001

Apple agrees to make available a royalty-free license for all Essential Claims (defined below) in U.S. Patent 5,379,129 to any implementor of the SVG 1.0 Specification, solely for the purpose of implementing the SVG 1.0 Specification, provided the implementor agrees to make available a reciprocal royalty-free license to its Essential Claims for the SVG 1.0 Specification to implementors of the SVG 1.0 Specification. Apple grants no license, either express or implied, to any other patent, patent application, trade secret or other intellectual property right. Apple expressly reserves all rights in its intellectual property.

All licenses and rights granted by Apple hereunder to an implementor will terminate automatically without notice from Apple if the implementor asserts any claim of patent infringement against Apple.

The term Essential Claims is defined below. This definition is based on the definition set forth in the August 16, 2001 W3C Patent Policy Framework Proposal.

"Essential Claims" shall mean all claims in any patent or patent application with an effective filing date no later than one year and one day after the publication of the first Public Working Draft, in any jurisdiction in the world, that a Member (or a licensor or licensee, with reference to entities other than Members) owns, or under which a Member (or a licensor or licensee) has the right to grant licenses without obligation of payment or other consideration to an unrelated third party, that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of the Recommendation. A claim is necessarily infringed hereunder only when it is not possible to avoid infringing it because there is no non-infringing alternative for implementing the required portions of the Recommendation. Existence of a non-infringing alternative shall be judged based on the state-of-the-art at the time the specification becomes a Recommendation.

The following are expressly excluded from and shall not be deemed to constitute Essential Claims:

(1) any claims other than as set forth above even if contained in the same patent as Essential Claims; and

(2) claims which would be infringed only by portions of an implementation that are not required by the Recommendation, or enabling technologies that may be necessary to make or use any product or portion thereof that complies with the Recommendation but are not themselves expressly set forth in the Recommendation (e.g., semiconductor manufacturing technology, compiler technology, object-oriented technology, basic operating system technology, and the like); or the implementation of technology developed elsewhere and merely incorporated by reference in the body of the Recommendation.

For purposes of this definition, the Recommendation shall be deemed to include only architectural and interoperability requirements and shall not include any implementation examples or any other material that merely illustrates the requirements of the Recommendation.

Bitflash IPR statement: 27 December 2001

We will provide a royalty-free (RF) license for all essential claims reading on the resulting specification, following the definitions of these terms in the 5 April 2001 Patent Policy Framework.

Canon IPR statement: 25 May 2001

We agree to provide to implementors, solely for the purpose of implementing SVG specifications, an implicit royalty-free license to use any patent claims that we have made, that read on Essential Technology required for implementation of the specifications to be developed, provided said implementor extends the reciprocal license.

The above our agreement is on condition that in the above the term "Essential Technology" shall mean "Essential Claims" found in The W3C Patent Policy Framework Proposal-W3C Working Draft 16 August, 2001 and is extended to those organizations that agree to the same royalty-free license to us for implementing the SVG specifications.

CSIRO Australia IPR statement: 24 May 2001 

We agree to provide to implementors, solely for the purpose of implementing SVG specifications, an implicit royalty-free license to use any patent claims that we have made, that read on Essential Technology required for implementation of the specifications to be developed, provided said implementor extends the reciprocal license.

IBM IPR statement: 30 May 2001 

IBM offers to operate under a RAND (Non-exclusive, reasonable and non-discriminatory patent licensing terms) structure. The current W3C definition of "RAND" is defined in Section 3.3.1.e, within the current working draft documentation from the "in process" W3C Patent Policy Working Group. This documentation is at the following W3C URL:

http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent/Group/Drafts/WD-PPWG-Framework-20010405.html

Provided below is the current "in process" W3C PPG RAND definition, with IBM's current comments, relative to the definition.

http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent/Group/Drafts/WD-PPWG-Framework-20010405.html

3.3.1 (e) A RAND License shall mean a license that:

(i) shall be available to all implementers worldwide, whether or not W3C Members;

(ii) shall extend to all Essential Claims owned or controlled by the licensor and its Affiliates (except as described below concerning license relating to contributions);

(iii) may be limited in use to the extent used to implement what is required by the Recommendation;

NOTE: IBM Preferemce A RAND License shall mean a license that may be limited in use to when required for fully compliant implementations of the Recommendation;

(iv) may be conditioned on a grant of a reciprocal license on these same terms to all Essential Claims owned or controlled by the licensee and its Affiliates. For example, this reciprocal license must be available to all, and this reciprocal license may itself be conditioned on a further reciprocal license (from all, including, especially in the case of a license to a Contribution, the original licensee).

NOTE: IBM Preference A RAND License shall mean a license that:may be conditioned on a grant of a reciprocal license under T&C's consistent with RAND policy, but not necessarily equal to the terms of the original contributor. Each participants's licensing offer should be based on the merit of the offering. Grant backs should not be broader in scope than the original license granted

(v) may be conditioned on payment of reasonable, non-discriminatory royalties or fees;

(vi) may not impose any further conditions or restrictions on the use of any technology, intellectual property rights, or other restrictions on behavior of the licensee, but may include reasonable, customary terms relating to operation or maintenance of the license relationship such as the following: audit (when relevant to fees), choice of law, dispute resolution.

NOTE: IBM Preference All licenses by a provider can be revoked, as to a particular licensee, in the event that such licensee brings patent infringement action against the provider.

ILOG IPR statement: 21 May 2001 

We agree to provide to implementors, solely for the purpose of implementing SVG specifications, an implicit royalty-free license to use any patent claims that we have made, that read on Essential Technology required for implementation of the specifications to be developed, provided said implementor extends the reciprocal license.

Kodak IPR statement: 15 August 2001 (revised) 

Kodak agrees to provide a RAND License (defined below) for all Essential Claims to implementors of the SVG 1.0 Specification who grant a reciprocal RAND License to Essential Claims for the SVG 1.0 Specification. Kodak grants no license, either express or implied, to any other patent, patent application, trade secret or other intellectual property right. Kodak expressly reserves all rights in its intellectual property.

Kodak does not believe it currently has any essential claims that fall within the specification of the Recommendation as currently understood and interpreted by Kodak for implementors of SVG. However, Kodak hereby identifies U.S. Patent 5,459,819 and affirms that in the event that any claim of this patent is interpreted as an essential claim within the specification of the Recommendation in its current or later amended form, Kodak agrees to provide a RAND License as set forth in the previous paragraph.

Kodak is not prepared to make a statement regarding any other patents at this time. However, should we become aware that another Kodak patent contains Essential Claims with regard to the SVG 1.0 Specification, we intend to disclose it.

The terms Essential Claims and RAND License are defined below. These definitions are based on the July 6, 2001 W3C Patent Policy Framework Proposal. Note that section (iv) in the definition of a RAND License below differs from the corresponding section in the Framework Proposal.

"Essential Claims" shall mean all claims in any patent or patent application, in any jurisdiction in the world, that a Member (or a licensor or licensee, with reference to entities other than Members) owns, or under which a Member (or a licensor or licensee) has the right to grant licenses without obligation of payment or other consideration to an unrelated third party, that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of the Recommendation. A claim is necessarily infringed hereunder only when it is not possible to avoid infringing it because there is no non-infringing alternative for implementing the required portions of the Recommendation. Existence of a non-infringing alternative shall be judged based on the state-of-the-art at the time the specification becomes a Recommendation.

The following are expressly excluded from and shall not be deemed to constitute Essential Claims:

(1) any claims other than as set forth above even if contained in the same patent as Essential Claims; and

(2) claims which would be infringed only by

[a] portions of an implementation that are not required by the Recommendation; or

[b] enabling technologies that may be necessary to make or use any product or portion thereof that complies with the Recommendation but are not themselves expressly set forth in the Recommendation (e.g. an image manipulation method such as algorithms for image enhancement, color modification, digital file formatting or image compression, construction of image processing kernels or look-up tables, methods of forming composite images using multiple SVG elements, and the like); or

[c] the implementation of technology developed elsewhere and merely incorporated by reference in the body of the Recommendation.

For purposes of this definition, the Recommendation shall be deemed to include only architectural and interoperability requirements and shall not include any implementation examples or any other material that merely illustrates the requirements of the Recommendation, or method or software that comprises a series of steps for constructing a digital image or a technique for obtaining a specific image result, such as the construction of a filter for sharpening, blurring, the definition of a matrix or look-up table for color enhancement.

A RAND License shall mean a license that:

(i) shall be available to all implementers worldwide, whether or not W3C Members;

(ii) shall extend to all Essential Claims owned or controlled by the licensor and its Affiliates (except as described below concerning license relating to contributions);

(iii) may be limited to implementations of the Recommendation and to what is required by the Recommendation;

(iv) may be conditioned on a grant of a reciprocal license on these same terms, to all Essential Claims owned or controlled by the licensee and its Affiliates. For example, this reciprocal license must be available to all, and this reciprocal license may itself be conditioned on a further reciprocal license (from all, including, especially in the case of a license to a Contribution, the original licensee). However, a license does not qualify as a RAND license under this definition if it requires that all licensees offer licenses on a no-royalty basis to all other third parties;

(v) may be conditioned on payment of reasonable, non- discriminatory royalties or fees; and,

(vi) may not impose any further conditions or restrictions on the use of any technology, intellectual property rights, or other restrictions on behavior of the licensee, but may include reasonable, customary terms relating to operation or maintenance of the license relationship such as the following: audit (when relevant to fees), choice of law, and dispute resolution.

Quark IPR statement: 18 June 2001 

We will provide a license on reasonable non-discriminatory terms (RAND) for all essential claims on the resulting specification, following the definitions of these terms in the 5 April 2001 Patent Policy Framework.

We have not determined whether or not we hold patents containing claims likely to be essential to the resulting specification, but will provide updated information as soon as we become aware of it.

Schema Software IPR statement: 22 May 2001 

We agree to provide to implementors, solely for the purpose of implementing SVG specifications, an implicit royalty-free license to use any patent claims that we have made, that read on Essential Technology required for implementation of the specifications to be developed, provided said implementor extends the reciprocal license.

Sun Microsystems IPR statement: 30 May 2001 

We will provide a royalty-free (RF) license for all essential claims reading on the resulting specification, following the definitions of these terms in the 5 April 2001 Patent Policy Framework.


Dean Jackson dean@w3.org

Last revised by $Id: SVG10-IPR-statements.html,v 1.9 2002/11/05 17:45:01 dean Exp $