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By:	Chinmay Joshi Srividya Iyer

Free and Non Discriminatory licensing is used by software companies where no royalty is charged by them to the licensee for their product. This includes copying, modifying of distributing the product.

Free and Non Discriminatory is a licensing form used to patent software products. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) introduced the patent policy draft which contains 2 forms of patenting, namely, Royalty-Free (RF) and Reasonable and non Discriminatory (RAND). The latter had terms which were not favorable for Open Source developers. It was mainly due to the high royalties being paid by big software companies to the Consortium. This would not be possible for small time Open Source companies and can thereby hinder creativity of developers to a large extent. Royalty-Free licensing was introduced with a view to encourage creativity of open source developers. It will also ensure that users are not being exploited by making them pay huge royalties. The RF licensing terms state that no royalty need to be paid if the software owner or the licensor does not charge the licensee for their product. Many big organizations support Royalty Free licensing terms including HP and IBM for some of their products.

OSI Definition: The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale. Rationale: By constraining the license to require free redistribution, we eliminate the temptation to throw away many long-term gains in order to make a few short-term sales dollars. If we didn't do this, there would be lots of pressure for cooperators to defect. [Open Source Initiative]

"Microsoft hereby grants to the W3C, a perpetual, nonexclusive, non-sublicensable, non assignable, royalty-free, world-wide right and license under any Microsoft copyrights in this contribution to copy, publish and distribute the contribution, as well as a right and license of the same scope to any derivative works prepared by the W3C and based on, or incorporating all or part of the contribution." [World Wide Web Consortium-XML Protocol Working Group]

"Our members support our IPR policy because there is a belief that OpenGIS specifications must be royalty free and unencumbered by patents, and therefore freely available to any party - buyer, commercial developer, government agency, or open source developer - that wants to implement OpenGIS Specifications in their enterprise", explained David Schell, OGC President. "The net result is that our market can grow, more organizations can benefit from our work, and ultimately buyers will have greater choice at less risk." [Open GIS Consortium, Inc Announcement in May 2003]

HP Supports Royalty Free Standards for Web Infrastructure
Midnight at the OASIS
OpenGIS Consortium Adopts Revised Royalty-Free Intellectual Property Rights Policy.
RFC3905
Understanding Patent Issues During IEEE Standards Development
W3C Patent Policy Framework

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the W3C Patent Policy
Intellectual Property Q&A
W3C News Archives

3GPP

Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age: Fifth Edition by Robert P. Merges ($128.79)
Intellectual Property in New Technological Age by Robert P. Merges ($107.92)
Intellectual Property: Examples & Explanations, Third Edition by Stephen M. McJohn ($36.62)
Emanuel Law Outlines: Intellectual Property by Margreth Barrett ($18.98)
Intellectual Property: The Law of Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents, and Trade Secrets for the Paralegal by Deborah E. Bouchoux ($118.71)
Essentials of Licensing Intellectual Property (Essentials (John Wiley)) by Alexander I. Poltorak ($23.07)
The Law of Intellectual Property by Craig Allen Nard ($125.46)
Casenote Legal Briefs: Intellectual Property: Keyed to Merges, Menell, and Lemley's Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age, 4th Ed. by Casenote Legal Briefs ($35.95)
International Intellectual Property in an Integrated World Economy by Frederick M. Abbott ($116.00)
Intellectual Property: The Law of Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks (Hornbook Series Student Edition) by Roger E. Schechter ($71.28)

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