NENA Intellectual Property Rights & Antitrust Policy

NENA requires an explicit Intellectual Property Rights Policy to conduct its daily work. The objectives of this policy are to:

• Ensure that Members’ and participating Entities’ IPR are protected;
• Promote awareness of IPR issues among NENA Committees so as to permit informed decision-making about the tradeoffs associated with technical alternatives encountered in committee work; and
• Ensure that implementers producing products or services based on NENA standards are not unreasonably inhibited by IPR licensing requirements.
  

The NENA Intellectual Property Rights Policy PDF document is the complete statement of NENA's Intellectual Property Rights Policy and must be accepted by all members working on NENA's Development Committees.

This policy imposes certain duties on the chairs of NENA meetings. They are listed in Section 7.2:

7.2 Notice at Meetings of NENA Committees

At the commencement of the first meeting of a NENA Committee held during a calendar year, and during the opening session of any conference held for the purpose of discussing, debating, proposing, revising, or otherwise working one or more Deliverables, the Chairman, Working Group Leader, Committee Resource Manager, Conference Emcee, or a designee of any of the foregoing shall read the following statement, in its entirety:

On behalf of the National Emergency Number Association, I welcome you to this meeting. It is essential that we observe certain ground rules as we participate in this meeting. Antitrust laws of the United States prohibit the discussion of a number of matters in a meeting such as this. It is important that discussions at this meeting address only that information needed for legitimate functioning of NENA and the <insert committee or working group name here>. Relative to any company or companies represented by any of us, there can be no discussion of: prices; terms and conditions such as credit terms, markups, or profits; geographical areas in which a company or companies seek or may seek to do business; the persons or companies with whom a company or companies will or will not do business; production costs; or any future marketing plans. Any departure from these ground rules could result in severe civil and criminal penalties to you as individuals and/or to your companies. Federal sentencing guidelines mandate jail sentences for antitrust violations and call for criminal fines that may range into the millions of dollars. NENA is committed to complying with federal antitrust regulations. Before participating in this meeting, you are encouraged to familiarize yourself with NENA’s complete Intellectual Property Rights and Antitrust policies, available at www.nena.org/ipr. It is a condition of your participation in this committee that you accept the terms of the NENA IPR Policy. If you do not accept these terms, please leave the meeting at this time.

The fact that this statement was read shall be recorded in the meeting minutes or conference proceedings, respectively. At subsequent meetings of NENA Committees or during ensuing conference sessions, the Chairman, Working Group Leader, Committee Resource Manager, or Conference Session Owner shall ask whether anyone present has not received or does not agree to this IPR Policy, and, after offering any person responding in the affirmative an opportunity to withdraw from the meeting or conference, shall record the fact that the question was asked, along with the name and affiliation of any person responding in the affirmative, in the minutes of the meeting or the proceedings of the conference session.

7.2.1 Exceptions

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 7.2, supra, the Antitrust Notice need not be read at meetings of subordinate bodies such as sub-committees or working groups if the following three conditions obtain:

a. the notice is printed prominently on the agenda of a meeting and the agenda is provided to all members of the subordinate body at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting’s scheduled start time;

b. the notice is verbally recognized by the Chair of the subordinate body or presiding officer at the commencement of the meeting; and

c. non-consenting Participants are given an opportunity to reject this policy and leave the meeting.

When this procedure is used by a subordinate body, that body shall record the fact that the Chair called attention to the notice and provided an opportunity for nonconsenting participants to reject the policy and leave the meeting in its minutes.