Legal Issues in Working Together

Presentation by Dan Bart, on legal issues when organizations work

together

Who are the parties?

• Legal Entities– Corporations including non-profits– LLCs– Partnerships (legal)

• General and Limited

– Individuals including D/B/A or sole proprietorship

• Non-legal, voluntary associations– Coalition– Alliance– Partnership, in non-legal entity sense

What limits are placed on the parties?

• By Law or Regulation

• By their own by-laws or working methods

• Expectations of the participants

What risks are they undertaking?

• Tort liability, general liability, e.g., slip and fall, cell phone brain cancer, etc

• Anti-Trust Liability• Economic • IPR risks

– Patent infringement – Copyright infringement– Trademark infringement– Violation of Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

• Other, e.g., contractural

In standards-setting context what issues emerge?

• Nature of relationship– Liaison, active or passive

• Formal agreements• Joint work with shared rights/responsibilities

– Joint Standards, e.g., TIA/ETSI, TIA/T1

– Partnerships of SDOs, 3GPP2, 3GPP, MESA

– Issues considered include financial, decision-making, Patent policies, copyright, etc.

3GPP2 Legal Context

• A Partnership of SDOs– Not a legal entity– Partnership Project Agreement (PPA)– Does not have a 3GPP2 Patent Policy but relies on

individual SDO patent policies for transposed standards– Shared copyright rights at 3GPP2 level, SDOs own

their transposed standards– Detailed working procedures– Open Forum, for all interested parties, can participate

via any OP, no Non-Disclosure requirements

Legal Issues that have arisen in context of 3GPP2/OMA

relationship• Request to 3GPP2 for a formal agreement but

3GPP2 not a legal entity therefore only OPs individually can bind themselves

• Request for NDA not consistent with open specification writing activities of 3GPP2

• OMA appears to have many legacy patent policies from acquired groups and new patent policy was evolving

• Appeared desired goals could be met with just liaison relationships

Other non-Legal issues that can arise

• Transfer of work

• Working methods

• Decision making

• Points of contact

• Financial

• Sharing of outputs

• Participation rights