W3C Patent Policy for WG Discussions

W3C Techinical Report Development Process

1. FPWD: First Public Working Draft
2. WD: (Ordinary) Working Draft
3. CR: Candidate Recommendation
4. PR: Proposed Recommendation
5. REC: W3C Recommendation

See also the W3C Process Document.

W3C Patent Policy

• What: normative technology in specifications
• How: must be provided based on the Royalty-Free license
• When: publshed as a W3C Recommendation
• Who: W3C specs are generated by WG participants

See also:
* W3C Patent Policy
* Patent Policy FAQ

Participation in WG Discussions

• Join the WG and Make Licensing Commitments
• For:
  • Telephone Conferences and F2F Meetings
  • Mailinglists
  • GitHub Repositories

See also:
* W3C Patent Policy.
* Patent Policy FAQ

Who Can Participate?

• WG Participants:
  • W3C Members, Invited Experts and W3C Staff
  • Everybody is required to make Royalty-Free commitment.
• Invited Guests:
  • The Chair(s) can invite a non-participant guest to a F2F meeting/telco.
  • However, should be aware of possible issues about contributions from non-participants.

See also:
* Patent Policy FAQ - Q6

Important Points

• To help manage expectations of meeting guests:
  • Should remind non-participant guests of the goals of the W3C Patent Policy.
• When a contribution is being considered for actual inclusion in a document intended to become a Recommendation:
  • The Chair(s) should ask the Contributor to disclose any essential claims.
• In cases where disclosure reveals possible incompatible licensing:
  • The Working Group should either (1) steer away from the Contribution or (2) attempt to secure W3C Royalty-Free licensing terms.

That's why this talk to make sure everybody is aware :)

FYI: W3C Spec Work on GitHub

• These days more and more W3C Specs are developed on GitHub.
  • W3C GitHub Repository
• Need for IPR management mechanism, e.g., Pull Request
  • Repository Manager Tool

See also:
* Repository Manager site
* List of Managed Repositories
* List of Pull Requests

• LICENSE.md:
  • WG-LICENSE.md (for specs under the W3C Document License)
  • WG-LICENSE-SW.md (for specs under the W3C Software and Document License)
• CONTRIBUTING.md:
  • WG-CONTRIBUTING.md (for specs under the W3C Document License)
  • WG-CONTRIBUTING-SW.md (for specs under the W3C Software and Document License)
• w3c.json