Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Important note: The field of IPR is complex, and it is difficult to provide generalized guidance. The following is provided for information only, and without warranty of any kind. Questions on specific cases must be addressed to ISO's Copyright Office. 

The following review considers IPR as it applies to: 

Material envisaged as comprising part or all of the content of an ISO publication
The content of - for example - an International Standard may originate from a number of sources, including existing national standards, articles published in scientific or trade journals, original research and development work, descriptions of commercialized products, etc. These sources may be subject to one or more rights. 

Copyright
In ISO, there is an understanding that original material contributed to become a part of an ISO standards publication can be copied and distributed within the ISO system as part of the consensus building process, this being without prejudice to the rights of the original copyright owner to exploit the original text elsewhere. Where material is already subject to copyright, the right should be granted to ISO to reproduce and circulate the material.  This is frequently done without recourse to a written agreement, or at most to a simple written statement of acceptance. Where contributors wish a formal signed agreement concerning copyright of any submissions they make to ISO, such requests must be addressed to ISO's Copyright Office. 

Attention is drawn to the fact that members of ISO have the right to adopt and re-publish any ISO standard as their national standard. Similar forms of endorsement do or may exist, such as with the current schemes for dual-numbering of ISO and European standards in the context of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standards development programme.

Due to the importance of the protection of the copyright of ISO documents (see below), in support of the guidelines in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 a basic text for copyright notices has been prepared for insertion in draft documents.

Reference to patent rights
The strong recommendation to standards developers is to avoid reference to patented items in ISO publications. Nevertheless, the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, 2001 recognize that for technical reasons this may not always be possible, and state that "If, in exceptional situations, technical reasons justify such a step [reference to patented items], there is no objection in principle to preparing an International Standard in terms which include the use of items covered by patent rights – defined as patents, utility models and other statutory rights based on inventions, including any published applications for any of the foregoing – even if the terms of the standard are such that there are no alternative means of compliance." (subclause 2.14.1). Further information - in particular rules relating to such references - is given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, subclause 2.14, including onward references to information given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 and the ISO Supplement (in particular to Annex SM). An example of potential text re. licensing of patents is available.

Due to the importance of the consideration of such aspects when preparing ISO documents, in support of the guidelines in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 a basic text for the identification of patent rights has been prepared for insertion in draft documents in those cases where compliance with an ISO document may involve the use of a patent.

Incorporating and/or referring to proprietary material in International Standards (including reference to trade names)
As for patented items, the strong recommendation to standards developers is to avoid reference to commercialized  items - including via the indication of trade names -  in ISO publications. Nevertheless, there is no objection in principle to describing in, say, a test method the use of items only available from one/a limited number of commercial sources, even if the terms of the standard are such that there are no alternative means of compliance. In all such cases the standard form of words must be included, for instance an indication of a source and that the product is not endorsed by ISO (see ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, 2001 for further information).

Due to the importance of the consideration of such aspects when preparing ISO documents, in support of the guidelines in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 a basic text for the identification of trade names has been prepared for insertion in draft documents in those cases where it is known that only one suitable product is currently available, or where it is considered to be essential to give an example (or examples) of commercially available products.

Protection of ISO standards and related ISO publications
The protection of intellectual property is of crucial importance to ISO as a whole and its members individually. The document Guidelines and policies for the protection of ISO's intellectual property, set out the broad requirements that both ISO and its members should meet with regard to ISO standards and related ISO publications. The purpose of Guidelines and policies for the protection of ISO’s intellectual property is to ensure better protection of ISO’s intellectual property and, consequently, that of its members. The ISO members and the ISO Central Secretariat should meet the requirements it lays out with regard to ISO International Standards and related ISO publications. These same guidelines are also recommended for application with regard to regional and national standards and related documents. The document contains sections on: 

- standards in hard copy 
- promoting the fact that standards are copyright-protected material 
- protecting standards against infringements 
- clearly indicating the procedure to follow in case of reproduction 
- commercial transactions 
- standards in electronic format 
- copying arrangements 
- networking agreements 
- warning notice – README file 
- security devices. 

It includes furthermore four important annexes: 
Annex 1 - Instructions to ISO TC and SC secretariats on Rules for copyright protection of ISO standards, FDIS and DIS, and of WDs and CDs; 
Annex 2 - Policy concerning the distribution of ISO documents electronically for the preparation of standards; 
Annex 3 - Description of reproduction rights organizations; 
Annex 4 - Checklist of the elements forming part of any agreement designed for the reproductions of standards.