l. "Reasonably and personally known": means something an individual
knows personally or, because of the job the individual holds,
would reasonably be expected to know. This wording is used to
indicate that an organization cannot purposely keep an individual
in the dark about patents or patent applications just to avoid the
disclosure requirement. But this requirement should not be
interpreted as requiring the IETF Contributor or Participant (or
his or her represented organization, if any) to perform a patent
search to find applicable IPR.
How do we deal with the case of a an individual that was exposed to IPR
in a previous
employment, but no longer having access to the records of that employer is
uncertain about whether they know of such IPR? A third party disclosure
is one
solution, but without access to records it may not be possible to
sufficiently
identify the patent such that the legal department can file the disclosure.
6. Failure to Disclose
There may be cases in which individuals are not permitted by their
employers or by other factors to disclose the existence or substance
of patent applications or other IPR. Since disclosure is required
for anyone making a Contribution or participating in IETF activities,
a person who is not willing or able to disclose IPR for this reason,
or any other reason, must not contribute to or participate in IETF
activities with respect to technologies that he or she reasonably and
personally knows to be Covered by IPR which he or she will not
disclose, unless that person knows that his or her employer or
sponsor will make the required disclosures on his or her behalf.
Contributing to or participating in IETF activities about a
technology without making required IPR disclosures is a violation of
IETF process.
In addition to any remedies the IESG may consider other actions. See
[RFC6701] for details.
This assumes that the individual intends to support the technology that they
know to be encumbered.
Surely we need to also consider the case of an individual that although
unable
to disclose IPR without breaching confidentiality is arguing for an
alternative
unencumbered solution.
We also need to visit the matter of licence fees.
The IETF has a policy of not discussing licence terms, and in particular
licence fees
in determining whether a technology is to be adopted or avoided. This
policy does
not properly consider the extremity of the range of devices we support.
What is
technically the best solution for a $1m router despite a significant
licence fee
may not be viable for $0.01 IoT sensor because of the licence fee. Yet
the WG is
not permitted to discuss those economics.
- Stewart