# ECL-1 patent pledge G-14, Inc. makes this pledge so that anyone can implement ECL-1 Version 1.0 and its companion specifications without paying royalties for, or asking permission under, the patent claims of G-14 that implementing them makes unavoidable. - Made by: G-14, Inc. - In effect: from the publication of ECL-1 Version 1.0 by G-14, Inc. - Counsel's review: this pledge was written before G-14's counsel reviewed it, and counsel's review of its wording is pending. Section 11 says what a revision after that review may change; it may not narrow the pledge. ## 1. The pledge G-14 irrevocably covenants, subject only to section 4, that it will not assert any of its Essential Claims against any person or entity for making, having made, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or otherwise distributing a Covered Implementation, to the extent of that Covered Implementation. The pledge is royalty-free, worldwide and non-exclusive. It requires no fee, registration, notice, agreement, certification or conformance listing, and no use of any product or service of G-14. It extends to the customers, distributors and users of a Covered Implementation for their use and distribution of it. ## 2. Definitions **G-14**: G-14, Inc. and each entity that G-14, Inc. controls, for as long as it controls that entity. Control means ownership of more than half of the voting interests of an entity, or the power to direct its management. **Affiliate** of a party: an entity that controls the party, that the party controls, or that is under common control with the party, with control as defined above. **Covered Specifications**: ECL-1 Version 1.0, the External Control Layer Standard, as published by G-14, Inc., and its companion specifications at the versions that the version set of Version 1.0 binds: DCMP-2 version 2.0, EBMP-2 version 2.0, and version 1.0 of INTEGRITY-ENVELOPE-1, DISTRIBUTED-WORKFLOW-1, TIMING-SAFE-STATE-1, EVIDENCE-LIFECYCLE-1, EXTENSION-REGISTRY-1, TRUST-POLICY-1, DCMP2-HTTP-1, TRANSACTIONAL-EFFECT-1, AUTHZEN-BINDING-1, STRICT-FAILURE-1, AARM-BINDING-1, ACS-BINDING-1, MCP-GATEWAY-1, OTEL-EVIDENCE-EXPORT-1 and OAUTH-AUTHORITY-1; together with the errata that G-14, Inc. publishes for them. A later version is a Covered Specification only as section 6 provides. **Normative Requirement**: a requirement that a Covered Specification states with a requirement identifier and a requirement keyword (MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY or OPTIONAL, as RFC 2119 and RFC 8174 define them), including a requirement that applies only when an implementation chooses an optional feature; and the constraints of the schemas and registries that a Covered Specification makes normative. **Essential Claim**: a claim of a patent or of a patent application, in any country, that G-14 owns or controls, now or later, and that is necessarily infringed by implementing a Normative Requirement because, when the Covered Specification is published, no commercially and technically feasible way exists to implement that requirement without infringing the claim. G-14 controls a claim when it may grant a license or a covenant under it without paying a third party. A claim of a pending application is included while it is pending and when it issues. **Covered Implementation**: a product, service or component, or a portion of one, made, used, sold, offered for sale, imported or otherwise distributed by anyone, to the extent that it implements one or more Normative Requirements and conforms to them. An implementation need not implement every Normative Requirement or claim conformance to be covered for the requirements it implements, and it need not use any software, account, subscription, certification or service of G-14. **Assert**: to bring, or to join as a party, a lawsuit or other proceeding before a court, agency or tribunal in any country that alleges the infringement of a patent claim, or to seek an injunction or an exclusion order on such an allegation. ## 3. What the pledge does not cover The pledge covers Essential Claims only, and only to the extent that a Covered Implementation implements Normative Requirements. It does not cover: - a claim that is not an Essential Claim, including a claim that reads on a technique that an implementation may prefer but that no Normative Requirement requires; - a claim that reads on an enabling technology: technology that an implementation may need or use but that no Normative Requirement specifies, such as processors and other hardware, operating systems, networks and their protocols, databases, general-purpose machine-learning models and cryptographic algorithms, and technology that another specification defines where a Covered Specification only refers to that specification; - a claim that reads only on informative text of a Covered Specification, such as notes, examples and informative sections and annexes, or on an informative guide; - a claim that reads on a reference or sample implementation, such as the offline verifier, the sample evidence or an example, beyond what a Normative Requirement requires; - a claim that reads on the techniques of G-14's platform, its own implementation of ECL-1, that the normative text does not require; - any portion of a product, service or component that does not implement a Normative Requirement. The code of the offline verifier is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, whose Section 3 grants a patent license of its own for that code ([LICENSING](LICENSING.md)). ## 4. Defensive termination The pledge ends for a party, and for that party's Affiliates, if the party or one of its Affiliates asserts a patent claim against an implementation of ECL-1, or against G-14 over ECL-1. It ends on the date of the assertion, for the asserting party and its Affiliates only; it continues for every other party. A patent claim is asserted against an implementation of ECL-1 when the assertion alleges that making, having made, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or otherwise distributing an implementation of a Normative Requirement of a Covered Specification infringes the claim, whoever made the implementation. It is asserted against G-14 over ECL-1 when the assertion alleges that G-14 infringes the claim by implementing, publishing or maintaining ECL-1. ## 5. Successors and assignees The pledge binds the successors and assignees of G-14 and of each Essential Claim. G-14 makes any transfer of an Essential Claim, and any grant of an exclusive license under one, subject to this pledge, so that it binds each later holder of the claim. ## 6. Duration and later versions For each Covered Specification, the pledge lasts for as long as any Essential Claim for it remains in force, subject only to section 4. G-14 may not withdraw it for a Covered Specification. A later version of ECL-1, or a later version of a companion specification, is a Covered Specification only if G-14, Inc. states in writing, when it publishes that version, that this pledge covers it. ## 7. Contributors Each contributor to ECL-1 makes, for its contributions, the same pledge on the same terms, with the contributor in the place of G-14: it covenants not to assert its Essential Claims against any Covered Implementation, to the extent that the Normative Requirements that the implementation implements are text that the contributor contributed or that its contribution changed. The contributor's pledge applies to each Covered Specification that includes the contribution, from the publication of that specification. A contributor makes the pledge by contributing under the terms of [governance/CONTRIBUTING.md](governance/CONTRIBUTING.md); it signs nothing else. ## 8. The licenses The copyright licenses of ECL-1 are stated in [LICENSING](LICENSING.md). The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license grants no patent rights. The Apache License, Version 2.0 grants, in its Section 3, a patent license from each contributor of code for the claims that its own contribution infringes. This pledge is separate from both licenses and limits neither. ## 9. No other rights The pledge grants no right in any trademark, copyright or trade secret, and no license or other right arises from it by implication, estoppel or otherwise beyond what it states. It gives no warranty. It does not say that any particular claim is essential, and it creates no obligation to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce or disclose any patent or application. ## 10. Patent status G-14, Inc. has patents pending. Nothing in ECL-1 says or implies that a patent has been granted. ## 11. Counsel's review This pledge was written before G-14's counsel reviewed it, and counsel's review of its wording is pending. The pledge is in effect as written from the publication of Version 1.0. If counsel's review leads G-14, Inc. to revise the wording, it publishes the revision in this file with the date of the change. A revision may clarify the pledge or widen it. It does not narrow the protection that this text gives, for any Covered Specification or any implementation.