ISACC has 4 policies: Privacy, Liability, Bilingual, ISACC Patent Policy.
Privacy
We are committed to providing our visitors with a web site that respects their privacy. This page summarizes the privacy policy and practices at the Telecommunications Standards Advisory Council of Canada.
- We do not automatically gather any personal information
from you, such as your name, phone number, e-mail
or address. This information is only obtained if you
supply it voluntarily, usually through contacting
us via e-mail, or registering in a secure portion
of the site.
- Any personal information you do provide is protected
under the federal Privacy Act. This means that, at
the point of collection, you will be informed that
your personal information is being collected, the
purpose for which it is being collected and that you
have a right of access to the information.
- We use software that receives and records the Internet
Protocol (IP) address of the computer that has contacted
our Web site. We make no attempt to link these addresses
with the identity of individuals visiting our site.
- We do not regularly use "cookies" to track
how our visitors use the site. Whenever we enable
"cookies" to facilitate your transactions,
we will first inform you.
- Visitor information is not disclosed to anyone except Industry Canada personnel who need the information, e.g., to respond to a request.
For questions or comments regarding this policy or for addition information about the administration of the Privacy Act, contact us by e-mail ISACC isacc-cccnt@ic.gc.ca or call us at (613) 954-2782.
Liability
Disclamers
Some of the information in ISACC web site has been provided by external sources. Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy, currency and reliability of the content, ISACC accepts no responsibility in that regard.
Where legislation is reproduced on the web site, ISACC assumes no responsibility for any discrepancies that may have been transmitted with the electronic version. The legislation has been prepared for convenience of reference only and has no official sanction.
Bilingual Policy
ISACC is committed to the principles of the Official Languages Act such that all official documents produced by ISACC are available in english and french. Please take notice however that certain documents that come from outside sources are available in the language they were produced only.
ISACC Patent Policy
1.0 Purpose
The objective of preparing telecom or information technology standards is to promote the compatibility of services and equipment over as wide an area as possible. It follows from this objective that telecom and information technology standards must be implementable by any and all industry participants. Undue restrictions imposed on a standard by embedded intellectual property must be excluded. This Policy recommends the procedures to be followed by Canadian telecom and information technology standards developing organizations (SDOs) to deal with the possibility of patented material contained within a standard.
2.0 Identification of Relevant Patents
It is the responsibility of any one who has knowledge of a patent, issued or pending, which may fully or partially cover elements of a Canadian telecom or information technology standard, either in preparation or completed, to come forward with that information to the SDO involved.
3.0 Declaration of Patent Interests
Patent interests should be identified as soon as possible, i.e. as soon as it can be discerned that a standard under preparation contains material that may be protected by an issued or pending patent. This may not always be possible, and so the SDO must be prepared to act on patent information whenever it becomes available, even if that is after publication of the affected standard.
4.0 Patent Holder Options
The patent holder has three options.
4.1 The patent holder may provide the SDO with a declaration of intent to license the patented
technology without compensation on a non-discriminatory basis for the purposes of implementing the standard.
4.2 The patent holder may provide the SDO with a declaration of intent to license the patented technology under
reasonable terms and conditions on a non-discriminatory basis for the purposes of implementing the standard.
4.3 Refuse to grant license under the terms of either 4.1 or 4.2 above.
5.0 Notice
Should a declaration of the type described in 4.1 or 4.2 be received by an SDO, and assuming that the affected standard is subsequently approved, the SDO is obligated to include a prominent notice in the published standard referring to the patent and the holder's undertaking to license the technology.
6.0 Records
SDOs are obligated to keep records of the patent declarations which they receive. The record should contain the patent name, number, owner and the issuing country(ies). Additionally, the record should correlate the patent entry to the affected standard. The records should be easily accessible to anyone.
7.0 Refusal to License
It is conceivable that a patent holder may decline to grant license under the terms of 4.1 or 4.2. In such case the SDO reserves the right to withdraw or amend a standard under preparation or revoke a previously approved standard. What action to take would be decided at the discretion of the SDO involved.
8.0 Disclaimer
It is important to note that Canadian SDOs are not responsible for the accuracy of the claims made by patent holders, neither are SDOs in a position to express an opinion on the validity of patents. Negotiation on the grant of license is a matter between the patent holder and potential licensees; the SDOs will not be involved in arbitration of any sort. Further, by publishing a standard for which no patent declarations have been received, an SDO does not guarantee that it is free of possible patent involvements, i.e. SDOs are under no obligation to conduct patent searches on the subject matter of their standards.