​​​​IPR

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) are legal rights that protect creations and/or inventions resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields. The most common IPRs include patents, copyrights, marks and trade secrets.

Many issues arise when a study group decides that it is technically prudent to incorporate an entity’s intellectual property in the text of an ITU-T Recommendation; the issues vary according to the nature of the intellectual property.

When the intellectual property that is included is protected by an approved or pending patent, the study group must comply with the Common Patent Policy for ITU-T/ITU-R/ISO/IEC and the related “Guidelines for Implementation of the Common Patent Policy for ITU-T/ITU-R/ISO/IEC”.

Alternatively, the ITU Software Copyright Guidelines provide guidance to a study group in its consideration of the incorporation of material protected by copyright law in Recommendations of ITU-R and ITU-T. ITU-T Guidelines related to the inclusion of Marks in ITU-T Recommendations provide guidance to ITU-T study groups in their consideration of the use of trademarks, service marks and certification marks in ITU-T Recommendations and on actions to be taken should a study group decide to reference any such marks.