IPR Details
Clarification from Cisco Systems on Tag Switching Patent

Update this IPR disclosure
Submitted: December 3, 1996 under the rules in RFC 2026.

Note: Updates to IPR disclosures must only be made by authorized representatives of the original submitters. Updates will automatically be forwarded to the current Patent Holder's Contact and to the Submitter of the original IPR disclosure.

I. Patent Holder/Applicant ("Patent Holder")

Holder legal name Cisco

II. Patent Holder's Contact for License Application
Holder contact name Tom Downey
Holder contact email tdowney@cisco.com
Holder contact info

III. IETF Document or Other Contribution to Which this IPR Disclosure Relates

IV. Licensing Declaration

The Patent Holder states that its position with respect to licensing any patent claims contained in the patent(s) or patent application(s) disclosed above that would necessarily be infringed by implementation of the technology required by the relevant IETF specification ("Necessary Patent Claims"), for the purpose of implementing such specification, is as follows(select one licensing declaration option only):

Licensing one selected]
Licensing information, comments, notes, or URL for further information

(No information submitted)

Note: The individual submitting this template represents and warrants that he or she is authorized by the Patent Holder to agree to the above-selected licensing declaration.

V. Contact Information of Submitter of this Form

Submitter name
Submitter email

VI. Other Notes

Additional notes

The IETF IPR statement with the title "Clarification from
Cisco Systems on Tag Switching Patent" purports to cover
"any standards arising from the MPLS IETF standards process".
This blanket statement may be ineffective under the recently
approved RFC 3668.

Cisco hereby notifies the IETF that this IPR statement shall
not be applicable to any standards approved by the IETF after
March 31, 2004.

Robert Barr
Worldwide Patent Counsel
Cisco Systems

408-525-9706

rbarr@cisco.com

-------------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Message received from Tom Downey of Cisco Sytems
Reveived Tuesday, December 3, 1996

The tag switching documents on http://www.cisco.com are somewhat unclear
about the licensing of tag switching-related intellectual property. To
clarify things:

Cisco plans to submit the Tag Distribution Protocol and other elements of
tag switching to the IETF for standardization, and to that end has
published several Internet Drafts describing tag switching and is
co-chairing a BoF at the December IETF meeting. In the Internet Drafts,
Cisco disclosed that Cisco has applied for one or more patents on
technology related to tag switching (and we encourage other companies with
patents or patent applications related to this IETF standards work to also
make such a disclosure). If any patents issued to Cisco are required to
practice any standards arising from the tag switching IETF standards
process, Cisco intends to disclose those patents and license them under
openly specified and non-discriminatory terms, for at most a nominal fee,
and will fully comply with the licensing provisions of RFC 2026 (in
particular, sections 10.3.2 and 10.3.3). This will apply irrespective of
whether or not the licensee is a Cisco IOS partner. The company also plans
to license the Cisco IOS implementation of tag switching to its Cisco IOS
partners. Given where Cisco is in the patent process, details cannot be
disclosed at this time, but Cisco intends to disclose such information as
soon as it is appropriate.

For further information, please contact:

Tom Downey, tdowney@cisco.com, or
Michael Dean, mdean@cisco.com
----------
X-Sender: tdowney@lightstream.cisco.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 09:36:08 -0500
To: tagswitch@cisco.com
From: Tom Downey
Subject: More on Tag Switching Patents

Several people have asked questions regarding my previous email on Cisco's
patents and licensing for tag switching. Specifically, people asked about
the phrase "for at most a nominal fee" and what "nominal" meant. To be more
specific, if any patents issued to Cisco are required to
practice any standards arising from the tag switching IETF standards
process, Cisco intends to disclose those patents and license them under
openly specified and non-discriminatory terms, for _no_ fee. Our goal is to
support and encourage the standardization efforts within the IETF and to
achieve a multi-vendor concensus on a set of protocols for this new
technology area.

================================================================

Message received from Tom Downey of Cisco Sytems
Reveived November 5, 1997

Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 18:09:39 -0400
To: iesg@ietf.org
Sender:iesg-request@ietf.org
From: Tom Downey
Subject: tag switching patents
Cc: mpls@external.cisco.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Recently, I have been asked questions regarding my December 1996 email on
Cisco's patents and licensing for tag switching. In December, I noted that
if any patents issued to Cisco are required to practice any standards
arising from the MPLS IETF standards process, Cisco intends to disclose
those patents and license them under openly specified and
non-discriminatory terms, for no fee.

The recent questions have asked what the terms will be. If any patents
issued to Cisco are required to practice any standards arising from the
MPLS IETF standards process, Cisco intends to license those patents under
the terms and conditions that were used by HP in RFC 1988. As noted in
December, our goal is to support and encourage the standardization efforts
within the IETF and to achieve a multi-vendor concensus on a set of
protocols for this new technology area.

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