Terms of Reference, Composition and Working Methods of the TSB Director’s Ad Hoc Group on Intellectual Property Rights (28 November 2007)

1. Terms of reference

The mandate of the TSB Director’s Ad Hoc Group on Intellectual Property Rights (hereinafter the “Group”) is to act as a forum for the exchange of views on intellectual property right (IPR) related issues between experts; and to provide advice to the TSB Director on IPR issues, principally copyrights and patents, related to ITU-T’s standardization activities.

In particular, this Group may, upon request from the TSB Director, propose amendments to the following documents:

• ITU-T/ITU-R/ISO/IEC Common Patent Policy;
• Guidelines for Implementation of the Common Patent Policy;
• Patent Statement and Licensing Declaration Form for ITU-T/ITU-R Recommendation and ISO/IEC Deliverable;
• General Patent Statement and Licensing Declaration Form for ITU-T/ITU-R Recommendation;
• ITU-T Software Copyright Guidelines;
• ITU-T Software Copyright Statement and Licensing Declaration Form;
• Guidelines related to the inclusion of Marks in ITU-T Recommendations.

The proposed amendments to the documents mentioned in points a), b) and c) above will be submitted to the WSC Patent Task Force for consideration. ITU will submit the revised texts produced by the Task Force to the Group prior to their consideration for adoption by the WSC member organizations.

The proposed amendments to the documents mentioned in points d) to g) above will be submitted to the TSB Director and point d) also to the BR Director for their consideration for adoption by the organization.

The Director will act on the Group's advice on other matters as appropriate (e.g. IPR databases; proposals to review IPR aspects of the ITU-T A series Recommendations; etc.).

The functions of this Group, which reports to the TSB Director, are purely consultative.

2. Composition

Participation is open to Member States and ITU-T Sector Members. Other relevant entities or persons may be invited by the TSB Director, in particular to present any contributions to the Group.

3. Working Methods

Normally, the Group will meet in conjunction with TSAG meetings. The Chair of the meeting is the TSB Director, or in his absence a person appointed by him. The Group works through electronic means between those meetings, as may be required.

• Download the Terms of Reference: Word | PDF