This page is focused specifically on the intellectual property embodied in the Leap2A specification, and the rights to it. There is a separate page on Leap2 governance that includes discussion of processes to define intellectual property rights (IPR). It may be useful to see the UK Intellectual Property Office site and its publication, (as PDF) Intellectual Property Explained.
IPR in specifications held on the leapspecs.org site is governed by two kinds of agreement. First, as a contributor, you sign up to a Contributor Licence Agreement (CLA), which regulates the "inbound" IP; and, second, the spec is licensed for the use of others by a licence (see below) granting "outbound" rights to all people using and implementing the spec.
At present, initially, there is no single body that has undertaken to be the "guardian" of Leap2A IPR. The intention is to constitute such a body in due course (most probably in 2011) but until then, we are reliant on firstly the subtle wording of the OWF agreement, that embodies a kind of "licence in common" not needing a central body, and a CLA through which contributors license their contributions to the "Managers of the Specifications". We hope this will suffice for the time being.
It is important to recognise that the rights associated with a specification like Leap2A may not overlap with the rights associated with an e-portfolio or other system that implements Leap2A. For example regarding patent rights, there may be new or inventive ways in which your system does things: that would be separate from the idea of transferring information using Leap2A. We, for Leap2A, do not need, or want, to make any claims about the IPR associated with your systems. But in order for others to be able to import information you have exported, we do need you to contribute some limited information relevant to interoperability with your system.
The copyright of Leap2A materials is owned by the original contributors or their employers. The employer will own the copyright in the contribution if the contribution was made by an employee as part of his or her employee duties. It is licensed to the managers of the specification through the CLA, and for general use by the Leap2A licence.
See the UK Intellectual Property Office's publication (as PDF), Copyright: Basic facts.
Copyright is an "automatic right" that an author has in their expressions of ideas, not the ideas themselves. Thus, if you have actually written some part of a specification, the copyright to the part you have written is yours, unless or until you assign it. Through the Contributor Licence Agreement, you allow us to reproduce, prepare derivative works, and distribute anything that you contribute. Retrospectively, through the OWF Agreement, you allow everyone similar rights.
On the other hand, if you have posted something on the list or the wiki, but not written anything that has been that has been included in the specification or accompanying documentation, your contribution, valued as it is, will enjoy copyright in its own right, but not as part of the specification, and so will not need to be covered by a licence. This is rather different from the assumption in free or open source software, where a "contribution" generally means a contribution of code, and thus automatically attracts copyright. Vital contributions to interoperability specifications are often through discussion and agreement of ideas, rather than through particular original wording.
There are no known patents or patent rights associated specifically with Leap2A.
See the UK Intellectual Property Office's publication (as PDF), Copyright: Basic Facts.
"Patents generally cover products or processes that contain 'new' functional or technical aspects. They are concerned with:
- how things work;
- how they are made; or
- what they are made of."
So, where there is nothing new or inventive, there probably won't be any associated patent rights. There is nothing new about transferring information using XML, or more specifically, using the Atom Syndication Format. This does not, however, mean that there could not possibly be any relevant patent rights. There have been cases of what have been termed "patent ambush", where someone contributes something without disclosing that implementing the resultant specification will infringe some patent right of theirs. The culprit goes on to demand royalties. (In the case of a true "submarine patent" as described in Wikipedia, the patent may not have been issued at the date of contribution.)
In the UK,
"Inventions relating to computer software may be patentable, but only if they involve something more than just software running on a computer in a technically ordinary way." (Patents: Basic Facts)
However in other countries (notoriously including the USA) software can be more easily patented, and software appears to have been patented in at least one recent case in England as well. We want Leap2A and related specifications to be usable across the whole world, so we need to take patentability into account seriously in any case, whatever the position in the UK and EU.
Through the OWF licence, contributors promise never to assert any patents that are necessary for the implementation of Leap2A, which covers patents both already granted, and ones that may be granted in the future. The CLA is also intended as a licence for anyone to use freely any patent rights that may be associated with a contribution.
The intention is to register "Leap2A" and/or "leapspecs" as trade marks.
See the UK Intellectual Property Office's publication (as PDF), Trade Marks: Essential Reading.
We have to decide what classes in the trademarks will apply to.
Most likely would appear to be Class 42:
"Scientific and technological services and research and design relating thereto; industrial analysis and research services; design and development of computer hardware and software; computer programming; installation, maintenance and repair of computer software; computer consultancy services; design, drawing and commissioned writing for the compilation of web sites; creating, maintaining and hosting the web sites of others; design services."
Leap2A is intended to be licensed under the Open Web Foundation Agreement 1.0, which is very permissive, giving everyone the right to copy and implement the specification, and to prepare derivative works, without restriction. The only condition is that of attribution of the original specification.
A reproduction of the OWFa 1.0 with the 2010-07 Leap2A details filled in is now at
http://www.leapspecs.org/2010-07/2A/licence/OWFa1.0_Leap2A_2010-07.html
This has been agreed. The original CLA is at http://www.leapspecs.org/CLA.html, but as we agreed that we would use the OWF CLA when it was ready, and it now is, a new version has been prepared at http://www.leapspecs.org/CLA/OWF-CLA1.0_leapspecs.html Contributors, please sign this and send me a scanned copy of your signed version.