ITU Workshop on Standards and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Issues, New Delhi, India, 19-20 December 2011

Convening Letter

On-line registration

ITU Workshop on Standards and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Issues

ITU is organizing a Workshop on Standards and Intellectual Property Rights in New Delhi, India, 19-20 December 2011. Taking place at the HMR Institute of Technology and Management, the event will be hosted by the Global ICT Standardization Forum for India (GISFI), and will be followed by the seventh GISFI meeting at the same venue, 21-22 December 2011.

One of the key aims of standardization is to enable the efficient ‘globalization’ of ICT products and solutions. IPR issues must be taken into consideration when developing standards, a process demanding a balance of varying stakeholder interests; such as those of patent holders, standards implementers and standards’ end-users. Additionally, SDOs frequently encounter copyright issues relating to the incorporation of software in standards.

Such patent and copyright issues are the subject of global debate, and the workshop is being convened to provide a forum for discussions relating to the inclusion of patented technology and software in standards. International experts from both the public and private sector will provide an overview of these issues and share their insights on the present nature of the issue and how it is likely to progress in the future.

Participation in the workshop is open to ITU Member States, Sector Members, Associates, Academia and to any individual from a country part of ITU’s membership. Fellowships are available upon request, please contact tsbworkshops@itu.int.

IPR AHG: Ad Hoc Group on IPR meeting: Geneva Switzerland,  6 - 7 December 2011

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TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on IPR

Geneva, 6 May 2011 — ITU and the EPO (European Patent Office) have signed an agreement in recognition of the need for standards makers to share information to help improve the quality of patents.

Standards are essential for the wide adoption of new technologies in the marketplace. However, there is potential for conflict between patents and standards when the implementation of the standard requires the use of technology protected by one or more patents.

The newly signed agreement will help create the right balance between the interests of all relevant stakeholders, including patent holders, implementers of the standards, and end-users while seeking to enable solutions to market-driven needs on a global basis.

Full press release

Meeting of TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on IPR

Geneva, 1 May 2009

Registration form

Ad Hoc Group on IPR Home

Next meeting the TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on IPR

Geneva, 26-27 June 2008

Registration Form

TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on IPR Home

ITU is hosting a workshop that will examine the critical issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and ICT standards.

The one day workshop will be held at ITU headquarters, 1 July.

The event, aimed at intellectual property specialists and standards makers will discuss the inclusion of patented technology in standards and the patent policy approaches to address this. International experts from both the public and private sectors from around the world will help provide an overview of the issues and share their insights on present and future developments.

The exchange of ideas and experiences facilitated by this workshop will provide valuable insight and input that can help to guide future discussion of the related issues – both at the ITU and in other fora.

Press release on common patent policy.

More information and registration here.

Click here for a document detailing some ITU-T highlights for 2007.

Reinhard Scholl, Deputy to the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU will speak at a seminar titled Global Standards and Developing Economies: Broadband Access and Infrastructure 9-10 May, Tunis, Tunisia.

The event hosted by the IEEE-Standards Association (SA) in collaboration with the Tunisian Ministry of Communication Technologies will bring together leaders from industry, government and international standards organizations to share their insights on how local entities can participate in and optimize global standards and best practices to help close the digital divide.

An in-depth introduction to international standards activities and highlighting of the scope of the IEEE and its relationships with ITU and other standards bodies will be given. Through interactive presentations, the seminar will provide an overview of the issues being faced by today’s policy makers and industry leaders and provide real world examples of how standards are making a difference in emerging economies.

In addition to discussion of broadband access and infrastructure standards via presentations and case studies, challenges and opportunities for developing countries regarding intellectual property rights (IPR) and standardization will also be addressed. For further information see here, or call the IEEE-SA Corporate Standards Office at +1 732 562 5342; E-mail cag-conference@ieee.org.

Link here

As part of celebrations for the 50^th anniversary of ITU-T, you are invited to vote for the most influential standards work from ITU-T.

ITU work is behind many of the worlds most prevalent information and communications technologies. Choose here from our shortlist which you think has best shaped the ICT world of today, or feel free to suggest your own idea.

 

 

A draft ITU-T definition of the term 'open standards' has been developed by ITU-T's group of experts on intellectual property rights (IPR). 
It's deemed necessary to do this to avoid confusion given the various different interpretations of the term. This way when 'open standards' are referred to in discussion, it is clear exactly what is being talked about - at least in ITU-T.

The draft definition can be seen here.

Following a meeting of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Ad Hoc Group ITU-T has issued guidelines on how ‘marks’ should be used in ITU-T Recommendations. The term ‘marks’ refers to trademarks, service marks and certification marks. The document will be available here. 

At the same meeting the General Patent Statement and Declaration Form was updated to reflect the changes made in July (see previous e-Flash story).

The IPR ad hoc group met in Geneva, 11-12 March 2005 to discuss IPR matters relevant to standardization in ITU-T.

The revision of two patent declaration forms was completed the meeting: the General Patent Declaration form and the Patent Declaration form for common & twin texts with ISO/IEC. The updated texts now reflect changes agreed by the group at its July 2004 meeting.

The group also produced a new version of the Software Copyright Guidelines, whereby the second paragraph in section 2.3.1 was moved to a new paragraph following the section 2.3.

And in the "marks" front - i.e., trademarks, service marks and certification marks - the group agreed on a first version of Guidelines on how to use "marks" in ITU-T Recommendations.

The group also discussed on what might define an "Open Standard" from the perspective of standardization work in ITU, and the preliminary outcome was annexed to the meeting report. Even though it does not constitute an ITU-T definition, it may be useful to help progress the discussions elsewhere in ITU.

[more...]

Patents

• ITU-T Patent Statement and Licensing Declaration Database (as at 07 April 2005)
  [Download Zipped Word file or PDF file] [README]
  
• General Patent Statement and Licensing Declaration Database (as at 07 April 2005)
  [Download Word file or PDF file] [README]

Software Copyrights

• ITU-T Software Copyright Statement and Licensing Declaration Database (updated: 24 March 2005) 
  [Download Word file or PDF file] [README]

IPR (Policy, Guidelines, Forms)

The TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on IPR is responsible for studies relating to

• ITU-T Patent Policy and its guidelines for implementation,
• Software Copyright guidelines,
• Marks guidelines

and their associated issues.

The membership of the group is open to all ITU-T and ITU-R members. Non-members can participate in meetings/reflector discussions at the invitation of the TSB Director.

[more...]

Patents

• ITU-T Patent Policy
  
• Guidelines for Implementation of ITU-T Patent Policy
  [Download Word or PDF file]
  
• Patent Statement and Licensing Declaration form
  [Download Word or PDF file]
  
• Patent Statement and Licensing Declaration form for a common or twin text ITU-T Recommendation | ISO/IEC International Standard
  [Download Word or PDF file]
  
• General Patent Statement and Licensing Declaration form
  [Download Word or PDF file]
  
• README
  
• ITU-T Patents Database

Software copyrights

• ITU-T Software Copyright Guidelines
  [Download Word or PDF file]
  
• Software Copyright Statement and Licensing Declaration form
  [Download Word or PDF file]
  
• ITU-T Software Copyrights Database

Marks

• ITU-T Guidelines related to the inclusion of Marks in ITU-T Recommendations
  [Download Word or PDF file]

TSB Director's Ad Hoc IPR Group

Databases related to IPR