The following statements are the patent disclosures and license commitments associated with the XML-Query family of specifications and provided by members of the XML-Query Working Group as well as other W3C members.
As per the current W3C Current Patent Practice, the XML-Query Working Group works on a royalty-free basis. Therefore, the XML-Query Working Group is mandated to produce a family of specifications which relies only on intellectual property available on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis.
All the members of the XML-Query Working Group are required by the W3C Current Patent Practice to disclose patents relevant to the XML-Query family of specifications. Patent disclosures are sent by email to patent-issues@w3.org, which is an archived mailing list readable by Members and the Team. They should take the following form:
I [do not] have personal knowledge of [any] IPR claims held by [organization] regarding the XML-Query family of specifications.In case there are IPR claims, disclosures must cite specific patent numbers that are considered possibly essential to a named specification. All disclosure statements made by W3C Members are made public with each publicly-visible Working Draft (public Working Draft, Last Call Working Draft, Candidate Recommendation, Proposed Recommendation, Recommendation).
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 the XML-Query Working Group deliverables is vested in the W3C.
What follows is the list of Patent Disclosures for the XML-Query family of specifications. For each organization, it is stated its patent disclosure, optionally together with its licensing terms:
Nothing
- Usually, this indicates that the organization, to the best of its representative's knowledge, has no patents essential to the XML-Query family of specifications.
- However, if
[different]is present, this means that although the patent claim can be generically classified as a "no-patents" situation, the precise disclosure is different from the aforementioned one: in which case, the precise formulation of the disclosure is provided.
Later - indicates that the organization will provide a patent disclosure on the XML-Query family of specifications at a later date. Note that failure to indicate a proper patent disclosure by the time the Recommendation-track deliverable(s) enter Candidate Recommendation (or Proposed Recommendation if there is no Candidate Recommendation) will render the disclosure obligation of the organization incomplete, as described in the W3C Current Patent Practice.
Some - indicates that the organization has some patents that may be essential to the XML-Query family of specifications.
Note that disclosure of licensing terms is optional.
Royalty-Free - indicates that the organization agrees to license such essential patents on Royalty-Free (RF) terms to all implementors of the XML-Query family of specifications, whether or not they are members of W3C.
RAND - indicates that the organization agrees to license such essential patents on Reasonable and Non Discriminatory terms (RAND) to all implementers of the XML-Query family of specifications, whether or not they are members of W3C.
Other - indicates that the organization licensing policy is neither Royalty-Free nor RAND, but follows some other practicse.
Microsoft Corporation, to the best of its representative's knowledge, has no IPR claims regarding the XQuery Family of Specifications(the exact wording, verbatim, is:
"I do not have personal knowledge of any IPR claims held by Microsoft Corporation regarding the above-referenced deliverables."where the "deliverables" here are "the XQuery Family of Specifications".)