IPR

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Intellectual Property Statement

1. General Policy
In all matters of intellectual property rights and procedures, the intention is to benefit the public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of others.

2. Confidentiality Obligations
No contribution that is subject to any requirement of confidentiality or any restriction on its dissemination may be considered in any part of the BPMI.org Standards Process, and there must be no assumption of any confidentiality obligation with respect to any such contribution. No submission should be made on the basis of an assumed confidentiality obligation or restriction on dissolution.

3. Rights and Permissions
In the course of standards work, BPMI.org receives contributions in various forms and from many persons. To best facilitate the dissemination of these contributions, it is necessary to understand any intellectual property rights (IPR) relating to the contributions.

3.1. All Contributions
By submission of a contribution, each person actually submitting the contribution is deemed to agree to the following terms and conditions on his own behalf, on behalf of the organization (if any) he represents and on behalf of the owners of any proprietary rights in the contribution. Where a submission identifies contributors in addition to the contributor(s) who provide the actual submission, the actual submitter(s) represent that each other named contributor was made aware of and agreed to accept the same terms and conditions on his own behalf, on behalf of any organization he may represent and any known owner of any proprietary rights in the contribution.

1. Some works (e.g. works of the U.S. Government) are not subject to copyright. However, to the extent that the submission is or may be subject to copyright, the contributor, the organization he represents (if any) and the owners of any proprietary rights in the contribution, grant an unlimited perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide right and license to BPMI.org under any copyrights in the contribution. This license includes the right to copy, publish and distribute the contribution in any way, and to prepare derivative works that are based on or incorporate all or part of the contribution, the license to such derivative works to be of the same scope as the license of the original contribution.

2. The contributor acknowledges that BPMI.org has no duty to publish or otherwise use or disseminate any contribution.

3. The contributor grants permission to reference the name(s) and address(es) of the contributor(s) and of the organization(s) he represents (if any).

4. The contributor represents that contributions properly acknowledge major contributors.

5. The contributor, the organization (if any) he represents and the owners of any proprietary rights in the contribution, agree that no information in the contribution is confidential and that BPMI.org and its affiliated organizations may freely disclose any information in the contribution.

6. The contributor represents that he has disclosed the existence of any proprietary or intellectual property rights in the contribution that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor. The contributor does not represent that he personally knows of all potentially pertinent proprietary and intellectual property rights owned or claimed by the organization he represents (if any) or third parties.

7. The contributor represents that there are no limits to the contributor's ability to make the grants, acknowledgments and agreements above that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor.

8. By ratifying this document, BPMI.org warrants that it will not inhibit the traditional open and free access to BPMI.org documents for which license and right have been assigned according to the procedures set forth in this section. This warrant is perpetual and will not be revoked by BPMI.org or its successors or assigns.

3.2. BPMI.org Specifications
(A) Where any patents, patent applications, or other proprietary rights are known, or claimed, with respect to any specification developed within the BPMI.org process, and are formally brought to the attention of the BPMI.org Board of Directors, the BPMI.org Board of Directors shall not advance the specification without including in the document a note indicating the existence of such rights, or claimed rights. Where implementations are required before advancement of a specification, only implementations that have, by statement of the implementors, taken adequate steps to comply with any such rights, or claimed rights, shall be considered for the purpose of showing the adequacy of the specification.

(B) The BPMI.org Board of Directors disclaims any responsibility for identifying the existence of or for evaluating the applicability of any claimed copyrights, patents, patent applications, or other rights, and will take no position on the validity or scope of any such rights.

(C) Where the BPMI.org Board of Directors is formally notified of rights, or claimed rights under (A), the BPMI.org Chairman shall attempt to obtain from the claimant of such rights a written assurance that upon approval by the BPMI.org Board of Directors of the relevant BPMI.org specification(s), any party will be able to obtain the right to implement, use and distribute the technology or works when implementing, using or distributing technology based upon the specific specification(s) under openly specified, reasonable, non-discriminatory terms. The technical committee proposing the use of the technology with respect to which the proprietary rights are claimed may assist the BPMI.org Chairman in this effort. The results of this procedure shall not affect advancement of a specification through the BPMI.org process, except that the BPMI.org Board of Directors may defer approval where a delay may facilitate the obtaining of such assurances. The results will, however, be recorded by the BPMI.org Chairman, and made available. The BPMI.org Board of Directors may also direct that a summary of the results be included in any BPMI.org document published containing the specification.

3.3. Determination of Reasonable and Non-discriminatory Terms
The BPMI.org Board of Directors will not make any explicit determination that the assurance of reasonable and non-discriminatory terms for the use of a technology has been fulfilled in practice. It will instead use the normal requirements for the advancement of BPMI.org specifications to verify that the terms for use are reasonable.

4. Notices
(A) BPMI.org specifications shall include the following notice:

"BPMI.org takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on BPMI.org's procedures with respect to rights in BPMI.org specifications can be found at the BPMI.org website. Copies of claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification, can be obtained from the BPMI.org Chairman."

(B) BPMI.org encourages all interested parties to bring to its attention, at the earliest possible time, the existence of any intellectual property rights pertaining to BPMI.org specifications. For this purpose, each BPMI.org specification shall include the following invitation:

"BPMI.org invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights which may cover technology that may be required to implement this specification. Please address the information to the BPMI.org Chairman."

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to BPMI.org, except as needed for the purpose of developing BPMI.org specifications, in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the BPMI.org Intellectual Property Rights document must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English.

The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by BPMI.org or its successors or assigns.

This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and BPMI.org DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE."

(D) Where, pursuant to a notification under this Policy, the BPMI.org Board of Directors is aware at the time of publication of proprietary rights claimed with respect to an BPMI.org specification, or the technology described or referenced therein, such specification shall contain the following notice:

"BPMI.org has been notified of intellectual property rights claimed in regard to some or all of the contents of this specification. For more information consult the online list of claimed rights."