Q: Should a Call
for Patents be issued at a Study Group or other meetings that occur
before approval of a Project Authorization Request (PAR)?
A: No. However, it is recommended that the
Patent Slides for pre-PAR Meetings be used in these
meetings.
Nevertheless, many
pre-PAR or non-PAR activities present the PAR slides and issue a
Call for Patents; I have observed this time again and again,
including many times this month. I think it's the wrong thing to
do, because IEEE says not to, it wastes time, it detracts from meaningful Calls for Patents, and it puts an undue burden on the
participants. I'm not sure whether the PAR slides are being shown
due to lack of knowledge of the policy or to a disagreement with
the IEEE-SA's recommendation.
The LMSC Chair's
Guidelines includes a subclause 2.9: "Patent Policy announcement
instructions." This specifies (using the word "shall") actions
regarding the slides, even though IEEE-SA language is softer ("The
IEEE-SA strongly recommends that at each WG meeting...").
Similarly, I think we should add specific language to 2.9 to
mandate the use of the pre-PAR slides in non-PAR meetings.
Here is my proposed
addition:
*2.9.1 and 2.9.2 be
subsumed under the heading "Standards Development Meetings"
*A parallel
subclause should be added:
Non-PAR
Meetings
At meetings of a
group working not under the auspices of a PAR (e.g, meetings of
TAGs, Standing Committees, Study Groups, and interest groups), the
IEEE-SA PatCom "Patent Slides for Pre-PAR Meetings" shall be shown.
In such cases, the IEEE-SA PatCom "Patent Slides for Standards
Development Meetings" shall not be shown and no Call for Patents
shall be made. As an exception, the "Patent Slides for Standards
Development Meetings" may be shown, without a Call for Patents, in
meetings held for for informational or educational
purposes.
By the way, 2.9 is
obsolete and needs to be reviewed overall.
Your thoughts are welcome.