Dear Don, PatCom members, PP-Dialog members:
Nokia supports the answers provided by Panasonic below to the questions presented in Don’s email of 1 June.
John Kolakowski
Senior IPR Licensing/Litigation Counsel
Nokia
From: Georg Nolte [mailto:Georg.Nolte@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 9:33 AM
To: PP-DIALOG@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [PP-DIALOG] Applicability of LOAs
Dear Don, PatCom members, PP-Dialog members,
below please find the Panasonic answers to your
questions as posed in the email below.
----
"1. How should LOAs (blankets and others) be understood
in situations involving changes in ownership, control,
etc. especially considering updates to the Patent
Policy text?"
Changes to the Patent Policy do not have any effect on
existing LOAs. Likewise, existing Essential Patent
Claims will only be licensed under the terms and
conditions of any changed Patent Policy if there would
be a new LOA submitted for such Essential Patent Claims.
As already described in section 6.3.4 of the IEEE-SA
Standards Board Operations Manual, all LOAs remain in
force even after an acquisition. So the assurance for
any previously covered Essential Patent Claims does
not change due to an acquisition.
As all existing LOAs provide an assurance under the
Patent Policy in force at the time of the submission
of the LOA, any acquired LOA or any acquired Essential
Patent Claim will be treated under the Patent Policy
in force at the time of the LOA submission.
----
"2. Which form of LOA is required for PARs (projects)
that were already in existence when the Patent Policy
text was updated on 15 March 2015?"
Neither the Project Authorization Request (PAR) date
nor the start of a project are relevant for LOAs. It
is only the time of the submission of an LOA that has
an impact on the format of the LOA. Any LOA submitted
shall be made in the format of the then approved LOA
form. The governing Patent Policy is the one that is
in force at the date of the submission of the LOA.
----
"3. Which form of LOA is required for PARs (projects)
that were started on or after 15 March 2015?"
See above at question 2.
----
"4. How are LOAs for an amendment versus a standard
interpreted?"
You (Don) wrote that this fourth question is already
covered by your previous email. So I'd like to refer
you all to my previous email sent a few minutes ago
to the PP-Dialog reflector.
Any questions and comments welcome. See you in about
two weeks in Berlin.
Kind regards,
Georg
Mr. Georg NOLTE
Patent Representative
Panasonic R&D Center Germany GmbH
Monzastr. 4c
63225 Langen
Germany
Office: +49.6103.766.131
Mobile: +49.172.79.72.744
From: Don Wright [mailto:don@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Mittwoch, 1. Juni 2016 21:32
To: PP-DIALOG@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [PP-DIALOG] Applicability of LOAs
Dear PP-Dialog participants:
There have been a number of discussions among IEEE standards participants concerning the applicability of LOAs. These discussions have focused on at least the following four areas:
1. How should LOAs (blankets and others) be understood in situations involving changes in ownership, control, etc. especially considering updates to the Patent Policy text?
2. Which form of LOA is required for PARs (projects) that were already in existence when the Patent Policy text was updated on 15 March
2015?
3. Which form of LOA is required for PARs (projects) that were started on or after 15 March 2015?
4. How are LOAs for an amendment versus a standard interpreted?
PatCom has been discussing topic #1 but, at this time, has no text or other guidance to propose to further address this topic. In this context, PatCom has reviewed not only the updated Patent Policy
text but also the text in clause 6.3 of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual (see
https://standards.ieee.org/develop/policies/opman/sect6.html).
In regards to topics #2 and #3, PatCom notes that the text of FAQs #84 and #85 describe the effective date of the Patent Policy. The methodology described in those FAQs is substantively consistent
with the way the transition was handled with the 2007 Patent Policy update. At this time, PatCom is proposing no changes to those FAQs or any additional FAQs on this topic.
Topic #4 was addressed in a separate e-mail to PP-Dialog distributed by me on 20 May 2016.
PatCom welcomes comments, ideas, and proposals from the PP-Dialog participants and others on these topics and looks forward to a discussion at the PatCom meeting on 29 June 2016 in Berlin Germany.
Please submit your comments, ideas, and proposals to PP-Dialog by 20 June 2016 so they may be reviewed by PatCom members and others in advance of the Berlin meeting.
________________________________________________________
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2016 IEEE Standards Association President-Elect
Member, IEEE SA Standards Board, PatCom (Chair) & ProCom
Chair, IEEE-ISTO Board of Directors
Chair, IEEE SA Nominations & Appointments Committee
Member, IEEE Nominations & Appointments Committee
Past Chair, IEEE Admission & Advancement Committee
Past Chair, INCITS Executive Board
Panasonic R&D Center Germany GmbH
63225 Langen, Hessen, Germany
Reg: AG Offenbach (Hessen) HRB 33974
Managing Director: Paul James