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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Patent Advisory Group Report to the CA/Browser Forum <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>To: CA-Browser Forum Members<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>From: CABF Patent Advisory Group<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Re: Report on PAG Discussions<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>This memo reports on CABF Patent Advisory Group’s (PAG) discussions. The PAG was stimulated by consideration of how the Intellectual Property Rights Policy (<a href="https://cabforum.org/wp-content/uploads/IPR_Policy_V1.pdf"><span style='color:#1155CC'>https://cabforum.org/wp-content/uploads/IPR_Policy_V1.pdf</span></a>) would apply to BR § 3.2.2.4, revision of which is under consideration. The PAG seeks feedback to guide its further work.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Forum’s IPR Policy generally requires royalty-free licensing of a Member’s “Essential Claims”. The term “Essential Claims” is defined as follows:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><b>8.1. Essential Claims</b> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>"Essential Claims" shall mean all claims in any patent or patent application in any jurisdiction in the world that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of the Final Guideline or Final Maintenance Guideline. 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 Normative Requirements of the Final Guideline or Final Maintenance Guideline. Existence of a non-infringing alternative shall be judged based on the state of the art at the time the guideline is adopted as a Final Guideline or Final Maintenance Guideline. For avoidance of doubt, if all the alternatives for performing a particular function or action would infringe claims of a patent or patent application, then all claims which cover such alternatives would be Essential Claims.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The PAG discussed the application of this definition to 3.2.2.4, which includes a list of alternative methods, and noted that (except for the case in the last sentence of the definition) a patent claim on one of the alternatives would not be an Essential Claim.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For this reason, the PAG circulated (on 9/18/2015) a request that Members disclose patents as if Essential Claim included alternatives (<a href="https://cabforum.org/pipermail/public/2015-September/005999.html"><span style='color:#1155CC'>https://cabforum.org/pipermail/public/2015-September/005999.html</span></a>).<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>Dear Forum Member,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>The Patent Advisory Group has approved the following Notice of Requested Disclosure re: BR § 3.2.2.4 for distribution to CA/Browser Forum membership:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>The CA/Browser Forum Intellectual Property Rights Policy includes the following:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>“2. Licensing and Disclosure Goals for CAB Forum Guidelines: In order to promote the widest adoption of CAB Forum Guidelines, CAB Forum seeks to issue Guidelines that can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis subject to the conditions of this policy. CAB Forum will ordinarily not approve a Guideline if it is aware that Essential Claims exist which are not available on RF terms. CAB Forum Members are encouraged to bring to the attention of the CAB Forum any known patent or pending patent application of other organizations that might contain Essential Claims.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>In light of that goal, to better evaluate whether the list of alternative methods for performing domain-control validation in BR § 3.2.2.4 is adequate, in light of the Forum’s IPR Policy, and to provide guidance to those who will look to the Forum’s guidelines while seeking to comply on a royalty-free basis:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>(1) All CAB Forum Members should disclose any patent or patent application that the Member or its Affiliates owns and any that it or its Affiliates has the right to license without obligation of payment or other consideration to an unrelated third party that would contain Essential Claims with respect to any existing or proposed method for domain validation currently listed in or proposed for BR § 3.2.2.4, if such method were the only way to fulfill the BR § 3.2.2.4 requirement.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>(2) In so disclosing, it is also requested that the Member also identify to which of the methods in the existing or proposed BR § 3.2.2.4 the patent(s) would have Essential Claims.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>(3) Please respond on or before October 31, 2015.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>In other words, the Forum is asking that Members disclose any patent or patent application that contains a method of domain validation. The PAG is concerned about the number of royalty-free methods available. The existing and proposed methods for BR § 3.2.2.4 are set forth in an email to the Public list from Kirk Hall, dated 10-Sept-2015 with a subject line of “[cabfpub] Final Domain Validation Methods pre-ballot for Forum consideration”.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>Finally, the PAG will soon be circulating its summary of findings. Those findings are in line with this Request and include two major recommendations: (1) modification of the definition of “Essential Claim” and (2) greater specificity with patent claim disclosures. The findings will be discussed in further detail at the upcoming face-to-face meeting in Istanbul.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>Thank you,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>CA/Browser Forum Patent Advisory Group<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It was also noted that, when a patent is disclosed in order to be excluded from the licensing requirement, it is not generally required (except as an option for unpublished applications) for the patent owner to identify the relevant portion of the Forum document:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><b>4.3 Conditions and Procedure for Excluding Patents and/or Patent Applications From CAB Forum RF License.</b> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'>A Participant seeking to exclude Essential Claims from the CAB Forum RF License in accordance with Section 4.2 must provide written notice of such intent to the CAB Forum Chair (“Exclusion Notice”) within the Review Period and the Exclusion Notice shall be effective upon its receipt by the CAB Forum Chair. The Exclusion Notice for issued patents and published applications shall include the patent number(s) or title and application number(s), as the case may be, for each of the issued patent(s) or pending patent application(s) that a Participant reasonably believes at the time may contain Essential Claims the Participant wishes to exclude from the CAB Forum RF License. If an issued patent or pending patent application that may contain Essential Claims is not set forth in the Exclusion Notice, such Essential Claims shall continue to be subject to the CAB Forum RF License. The Exclusion Notice for unpublished patent applications must provide either: (i) the text of the filed application; or (ii) identification of the specific part(s) of the Final Guideline or Final Maintenance Guideline whose implementation makes the excluded claim an Essential Claim. If (ii) is chosen, the effect of the exclusion will be limited to the identified part(s) of the Final Guideline or Final Maintenance Guideline. Exclusion Notices shall be published at [URL: <a href="https://cabforum.org/ipr-exclusion-notices/">https://cabforum.org/ipr-exclusion-notices/</a>].<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Actions to consider:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-left:.5in;mso-add-space:auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>●<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span><![endif]>Making patent disclosure relating to alternatives (as recently requested concerning 3.2.2.4) a requirement of the IPR Policy.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-left:.5in;mso-add-space:auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>●<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span><![endif]>Changing the definition of Essential Claims such that a claim on one of a set of alternatives would be an Essential Claim. This would require disclosure of a patent that the owner wished to exclude from the licensing requirement.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-left:.5in;mso-add-space:auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>●<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span><![endif]>Changing the IPR Policy’s requirements for excluding patents such as to require identification of the relevant portion of the Forum document.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>