[cabfpub] Notice of Requested Disclosure re: BR § 3.2.2.4

[Ben Wilson]

Dear Forum Member,



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:



The CA/Browser Forum Intellectual Property Rights Policy includes the following:


“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.”

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:



(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.

(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.

(3)   Please respond on or before October 31, 2015.



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”.



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.



Thank you,



CA/Browser Forum Patent Advisory Group

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