Network Working Group S. Bradner Internet-Draft Harvard University Editor January 2005 Indication of Trademarks in IETF Documents Status of this Memo By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of RFC 3668. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html This Internet-Draft will expire on July 27, 2005. Abstract People writing IETF documents sometimes must use trademarked terms. This document clarifies how document authors can indicate that a term is trademarked. This document updates RFC 3667 and 3668. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society. (2005) 1. Introduction Section 3.6 of RFC 3667 [RFC3667] says that contributors "who claim trademark rights in terms used in their IETF contributions are requested to state specifically what conditions apply to implementers of the technology relative to the use of such trademarks." Bradner [Page 1] Internet-Draft Indication of Trademarks January 2005 Section 11 of RFC 3668 [RFC3668] says that "IETF and RFC Editor documents must not contain any mention of specific IPR." But neither RFC 3667 or RFC 3668 address the question of marking such terms in IETF contributions to indicate that trademark rights have been claimed, nor do they address the question of other text to indicate who is making the claim of trademark rights. The lack of direction in RFC 3667 and RFC 3668 on these questions led to considerable discussion on the IETF and IPR Working Group mailing lists. This memo answers these questions. 2. Marking terms to indicate a claim to trademark or service mark rights A contributor may indicate a registered trademark or service mark by appending the three characters (R) to the term or phrase. A contributor may indicate that they claim, or that they acknowledge, a claim to an unregistered trademark on a specific term or phrase by appending the four characters (TM) to the term or phrase. A contributor may indicate that they claim, or that they acknowledge, a claim to an unregistered service mark on a specific term or phrase by appending the four characters (SM) to the term or phrase. Such a notice is optional when you are using the mark in a manner that is not in connection with the sale or promotion of a product or service, for example in just referencing a technology in a RFC. The markings described in this document are not intended to say which jurisdiction the trademarks or service marks are filed in. The markings described here just assert that one such mark exists in some jurisdiction. Contributors should be careful not to use any of these designations improperly, as such would be considered a violation of IETF policies and could, in some cases, also be prohibited by applicable law. 3. No IPR disclosures in IETF Documents To conform to the requirements of RFC 3668, the contribution must not include a statement such as "Foo (TM) is a trademark of BarrCo." If a contributor wants to make such a statement he or she should follow Section 3.6 of RFC 3667 which says any "statements should be submitted in the same way as is done for other intellectual property claims. (See [RFC 3668] Section 6.)" Statements about who claims a particular trademark or service mark Bradner [Page 2] Internet-Draft Indication of Trademarks January 2005 are generally not needed but may be helpful if the contributor is claiming a generally unknown mark themselves. If no statement has been filed with the IETF about a term or phrase that is marked in a contribution as a trademark or service mark it is reasonable to assume that references to the term or phrase in product text, documentation and advertising material is permitted but that using the term or phrase as the name of a product requires permission from the holder of the mark. 4. References 4.1. Normative References [RFC 3667] Bradner, S., Ed., "IETF Rights in Contributions", BCP 78, RFC 3667, February 2004. [RFC 3668] Bradner, S., Ed., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3668, February 2004. 5. Acknowledgements The editor would like to acknowledge the legal advice on this topic provided by Michael Bevilacqua and Jorge Contreras of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr. 12. Editor's Address Scott Bradner Harvard University 29 Oxford St. Cambridge MA, 02138 Phone: +1 617 495 3864 EMail: sob@harvard.edu 13. Full copyright statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78 and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, Bradner [Page 3] Internet-Draft Indication of Trademarks January 2005 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. Intellectual Property The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights 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; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat 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 implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at http://www.ietf.org/ipr. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-ipr@ietf.org. Acknowledgement Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Bradner [Page 4]