Ex ante disclosures of licensing terms

Where can I find ex ante disclosures of licensing terms?

You can find the collection of links to URLs of IPR owners, which contains the details of licensing terms from ex ante disclosures at the following link: List of Ex ante disclosures of licensing terms.

What is ex ante disclosures of licensing terms?

Ex ante disclosure of licensing terms is a mechanism about committing to licensing terms before the protected technology will be selected as part of a standard or in other words a mechanism about submitting anticipated licensing terms for a given standard draft before the contribution is locked-in as a standard. Ex ante disclosure of licensing terms should not be confused with:

  - the disclosure of IPRs, which is the
    notification to ETSI of essential or     
    potentially essential IPRs,
    nor with
  - the requested undertaking in writing
    of an IPR owner that it is prepared to
    grant licenses on fair, reasonable and
    non-discriminatory terms and 
    conditions, pursuant to Clause 6.1 of
    the ETSI IPR Policy.

Both are independent from the ex ante disclosures of licensing terms and are not replaced by the latter.

It is considered that licensing terms from such disclosures may, in some circumstances, improve transparency for individual Members in considering technologies for inclusion in standards.

How is ex ante working in ETSI?

Any public and unilateral ex ante disclosure of licensing terms by licensors of essential IPRs in ETSI is fully voluntary and for the sole purpose of assisting members in making informed (unilateral and independent) decisions in relation to whether solutions best meet the technical objectives.

There is no obligation for any ETSI Member to disclose any licensing terms related to any of its IPRs. The lack of disclosure by a Member of its licensing terms is not creating any implication under the ETSI Directives. Specifically, the requested undertaking in writing of an IPR owner that it is prepared to grant licenses on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions pursuant to Clause 6.1 of the ETSI IPR Policy is sufficient when selecting technologies for ETSI standards and technical specifications.

Also and in order to avoid a misleading impression no detailed licensing terms are available from ETSI. ETSI is simply acting as a depository, where IPR owners (licensors) can make available information on how and where to access such disclosed licensing terms, and provide links to URLs of IPR owners, which contain the details of licensing terms and conditions, so that information about the availability of licenses can be disseminated to all users of ETSI standards.