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W3C Patent Policy Overview
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> <title>W3C Patent Policy Overview</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/base.css" /> </head> <body> <p><a href="/" title="Go to W3C Home Page"><img height="48" width="72" alt="W3C" src="/assets/logos/w3c/w3c-no-bars.svg" /></a></p> <h1>W3C Patent Policy</h1> <dl> <dt>Latest published version: <dd><a href="/policies/patent-policy/">https://www.w3.org/policies/patent-policy/</a> <dt>Current Version: <dd><a href="/policies/patent-policy/20200915/">https://www.w3.org/policies/patent-policy/20200915/</a> <dt>Previous Versions: <dd><a href="/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20170801/" rel="prev">https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20170801/</a> <dd><a href="/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/">https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/</a> </dl> <h1>Abstract</h1> <p>W3C operates under a royalty-free patent policy by which participants in standards development make commitments to license their standards-essential patents royalty-free to implementers and users of the W3C specifications.</p> <h1>W3C Patent Policy History</h1> <p>In February 2004, W3C adopted a Royalty-Free <a href="/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/">Patent Policy</a> to enable continued innovation and widespread adoption of Web standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. The W3C Patent Policy is designed to:</p> <ul class="show_items"><li>Facilitate the development of W3C Recommendations by W3C Working Groups;</li><li>Promote the widespread implementation of those Recommendations on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis;</li><li>Address issues related to patents that arise during and after the development of a Recommendation.</li></ul> <p>On 15 September, 2020, W3C <a href="/news/2020/w3c-re-ernergizes-process-for-agile-web-standardization-and-earlier-royalty-free-protection/">adopted</a> an updated version, the <a href="/policies/patent-policy/20200915/">15 September 2020 Patent Policy</a>. The 2020 update supports patent protection at earlier Candidate phases of development, supporting unencumbered implementation and use even as specifications continue to evolve.</p> <ul> <li> <a href="/2020/09/15-pp-faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions</a> about the current Patent Policy are currently under development.</p> </ul> <h1>Historical references</h1> <p>The following resources were developed for the 2004 Patent Policy:</p> <ul class="show_items"><li> <a href="/2003/12/22-pp-faq.html">Patent Policy FAQ</a> </li><li> <a href="/2004/02/05-patentsummary.html">Policy Summary</a> </li><li> <a href="/2004/03/pp-points-20040210.html">Business Benefits</a> </li></ul> <hr /> <p class="copyright"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Copyright © 2024 <a href="https://www.w3.org/">World Wide Web Consortium</a>.<br> <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr><sup>®</sup> <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/#disclaimers">liability</a>, <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/#trademarks">trademark</a> and <a rel="license" href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/document-license/" title="W3C Document License">permissive license</a> rules apply.</span></p> <p>This document last modified: $Date: 2024/06/17 08:31:38 $</p> </body> </html>