JSR358-25: Mandate non-assert Patent Covenants?

[apastsya]

Jira issue originally created by user pcurran:

JSR 306 included language mandating non-assertion patent policies.

Do we still wish to pursue this?

[apastsya]

Comment created by starksm64:

Red Hat does not support replacement of the patent license grants in the existing JSPA with nonassert covenants.

[apastsya]

Comment created by pcurran:

Mike Milinkovich noted on the EG mailing list:

IANAL, but I think that one difference between non-assertion and royalty-free is that if we go non-assertion, the patent retaliation approach that we had previously discussed would no longer work. If royalty-free patent licenses are granted, you have something to revoke if someone sues for patent infringement. However, I personally have yet to see language that provides the equivalent if you use non-assertion.

This may not be a big deal, but I just wanted to make sure that we all understand that if we go non-assertion, then we may be losing the ability to use the termination of patent licenses as a defense against litigation.

[apastsya]

Comment created by pcurran:

Anish Karmarkar has pointed us to three IPR policies that combine non-assertion with defensive termination:

• OSGi Alliance IPR policy (section 2.1)
• OASIS IPR policy (section 10.3.2)
• OMG IPR policy (appendix A, bullet 4)