+1. Thank you for all your efforts on
this, Rob.
=Drummond
From: Wachob, Gabe
[mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 5:17
PM
To: Philpott, Robert;
Subject: RE: [chairs] FW: A change
to the RSA licensing process for SAML implementers
I congratulated and comisserated with Rob
in private, but let me hereby thank and congratulate him in public - this is
exactly the sort of licensing mechanism that I would like OASIS to encourage
licensors to use!
-Gabe
From: Philpott,
Robert [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 5:15
PM
To:
Subject: [chairs] FW: A change to
the RSA licensing process for SAML implementers
Hi folks – I just posted this to the
SSTC distribution list (as well as letting folks at Liberty Alliance know).
Rob Philpott
Senior Consulting Engineer
RSA Security Inc.
Tel: 781-515-7115
Mobile:
617-510-0893
Fax: 781-515-7020
Email:
I-name: =Rob.Philpott
From: Philpott, Robert
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 7:30
PM
To:
Cc: Philpott, Robert
Subject: A change to the RSA
licensing process for SAML implementers
Hi all,
As you all should know, RSA Security’s IP declaration
for SAML described a licensing process that required downloading a license from
the RSA Security web site, getting it signed, and mailing it back to
RSA’s legal office. I’ve been working on getting this changed
for quite a long time (months) and finally achieved success last week! We
have now switched to the common “defensive suspension” style of
licensing, for example like that used by AOL for SAML.
I notified OASIS of the change on 27-April. I’ve
been waiting for them to post the new statement to the SSTC IPR page before
announcing it, but since there’s been a bit of discussion on IP licensing
(mentioning SAML) on the chairs list and over at Liberty, we concluded we
should go ahead and update everyone.
The text of the new statement is attached below. As I
said, it should be posted to the IPR page very soon (anyone at OASIS
listening?)…
Cheers,
Rob Philpott
Senior Consulting Engineer
RSA Security Inc.
Tel: 781-515-7115
Mobile:
617-510-0893
Fax: 781-515-7020
Email:
I-name: =Rob.Philpott
To:
OASIS Executive Director
From:
Robert P. Nault, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, RSA Security Inc.
Date:
April 27, 2006
Subject:
Intellectual Property Rights Statement
In
previous correspondence dated December 6, 2004, January 20, 2003 and April 22,
2002, RSA Security Inc. ("RSA") disclosed that it is the assignee of
U.S. Patent Nos. 6,085,320 and 6,189,098, both entitled
"Client/Server Protocol for Proving Authenticity" and U.S. Patent
Nos. 5,922,074 and 6,249,873, both entitled “Method of and
Apparatus for Providing Secure Distributed Directory Services and Public Key
Infrastructure” (collectively, the “RSA Patents”). At that time, RSA believed that
these four patents could be relevant to practicing certain operational modes of
the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (“SAML”)
specifications. In the correspondence, RSA offered to grant
non-exclusive, royalty-free licenses on a non-discriminatory basis for the RSA
Patents.
In the
interest of encouraging deployment of SAML-based technologies, RSA hereby
covenants, free of any royalty, that it will not assert any claims in the RSA
Patents which may be essential to the SAML standard v1.0, 1.1 and 2.0
(hereinafter “NECESSARY CLAIMS”) against any other entity with
respect to any implementation conforming to the SAML standard v1.0, 1.1 and/or
2.0. This covenant shall become null and void with respect to any entity
that asserts, either directly or indirectly (e.g. through an affiliate), any
patent claims or threatens or initiates any patent infringement suit against
RSA and/or its subsidiaries or affiliates. The revocation of the covenant
shall extend to all prior use by the entity asserting the claim.
RSA
will continue to honor existing license agreements for the RSA Patents and will
continue to offer as an option to interested third parties the same licensing
arrangement described in our previous correspondence. (The license
agreement, along with instructions for obtaining and completing the license,
are available on RSA’s website www.rsasecurity.com.)
RSA welcomes comments on this statement
and looks forward to further collaboration with OASIS
