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(draft 2026-08-30)

First edition

Date: 2026-08-30

ELF Directive: Intellectual property rights policy

© 2026 EXPRESS Language Foundation.

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from the EXPRESS Language Foundation.

EXPRESS Language Foundation
2093 Philadelphia Pike Ste 3311
Claymont, Delaware 19703
USA

E-mail: info@expresslang.org

Published in the USA


Don’t panic, EXPRESS.



Foreword

The EXPRESS Language Foundation (“ELF”) is a registered public charity in the US that facilitates the education, standardization, research, promotion, definition, and usage of information modelling and programming languages, with a focus on the EXPRESS language family.

ELF works with international partners and experts across the globe, reflecting the international nature of its mission. More information about ELF is available on the official website (https://www.expresslang.org).

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ELF Directives.

In particular the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ELF documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ELF Directives.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ELF shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be provided in the Introduction.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

This document was prepared by the Technical Coordination Board (TCB).


Introduction

0.1  General

ELF is committed to expanding the realm of standards for information modelling and programming languages, with a focus on the EXPRESS language family and interoperability across the globe and communities of practice.

In the ELF standardization process described in ELF 101:2026, contributions are received from various forms and parties. As a proponent of open standards, ELF is required to address any intellectual property rights in such contributions to be able to publish standardization deliverables.

This document details the IPR policy of ELF covering all ELF standardization activities, covering generally the following categories:

  • Copyright

  • Trademarks

  • Patents

0.2  Purpose

This document describes the intellectual property rights policy of ELF that aims to be simple and straightforward.

ELF deliverables are drawn up by technical, not IPR, experts, who may not be fully aware of all nuances in the complex international legal situation of intellectual property rights.

ELF deliverables are non-binding — their objective is to ensure compatibility of technologies and systems on a worldwide basis.

To ensure the applicability and accessibility of ELF deliverables, the implementation and continued usage of content within the deliverables must be possible to the worldwide audience without discrimination, including any intellectual property rights embodiment in such deliverables.

ELF Directive: Intellectual property rights policy

1  Scope

This document provides the ELF intellectual property rights policy, which governs all standardization activities at ELF.

The ELF patent policy is described in ELF 103:2026.

2  Normative references

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

ELF 101:2026, ELF Directive: Standardization and publication

ELF 103:2026, ELF Directive: Patent policy

3  Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

contribution

material provided as input to an ELF standardization activity

Note 1 to entry: a contribution can be provided by a member of ELF or an external party

contributor

party that provides a contribution (3.1)

4  Standardization activities

4.1  No confidential material

No confidential material is to be discussed at or during ELF standardization activities.

All information provided or discussed in ELF activities is presumed to be public information and member participants are reminded that they should not discuss or reveal any confidential information of their respective organizations.

While work in progress within ELF is not publicly available outside ELF, with minor exceptions, completed work products of ELF are intended to be publicly and freely available, and will be posted on the ELF web site.

4.2  Mandatory disclosure of intellectual property rights

Discussions that relate to known or potential intellectual property rights during ELF standardization activities must be performed under full disclosure of such rights.

Individuals participating in the activities of ELF are responsible for determining that such rights when known, must be disclosed in accordance with this provision.

5  Contributions

5.1  No confidential material

Participants in ELF standardization activities must avoid providing contributions containing confidential material, regardless whether provided in person or via electronic means.

5.2  Mandatory disclosure of intellectual property rights

Contributions which contain intellectual property of an organization must be disclosed and are subject to the rules and guidance provided in this document.

Such contributions shall be avoided unless such material can be shown to be, in the judgment of the participants in the activity and the ELF Board of Directors, essential to the work.

No material which is subject to any terms of confidentiality or restriction of dissemination on the part of its contributor or the contributor’s organization can be accepted for such use.

Individuals participating in the activities of ELF are responsible for determining that material which they contribute is made available by their organizations in accordance with this provision.

5.3  Copyright provisions

If any part of a contribution is or may be subject to copyright, the contributor and his or her organization, and any other owners of any proprietary rights in the contribution, grant ELF a world-wide, non-exclusive, non-sub-licensable license (except for the submission and adoption by other standardization bodies), to use contents of submitted documents to ELF, for the development and publishing of the deliverables.

This license includes the right to copy, publish and distribute the contribution in any way, and to prepare derivative works that are based on or incorporate all or part of the contribution, the license to such derivative works to be of the same scope as the license of the original contribution.

NOTE  This is in alignment with IETF RFC 2026, 10.3.1.1.

5.4  Admission and usage

ELF has no duty to admit, publish or otherwise use or disseminate any contribution.

NOTE  This is in alignment with IETF RFC 2026, 10.3.1.2.

5.5  Reference

The contributor grants permission to reference the names and addresses of contributors of a contribution and of the organizations he or she represents (if any).

NOTE  This is in alignment with IETF RFC 2026, 10.3.1.3.

5.6  Source disclosure

A contribution must properly acknowledge all major contributors of that contribution.

NOTE  This is in alignment with IETF RFC 2026, 10.3.1.4.

5.7  IPR disclosure

The contributor when submitting a contribution, represents that he or she has disclosed the existence of any proprietary or intellectual property rights in the contribution that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor.

The contributor does not represent that he or she personally knows of all potentially pertinent proprietary and intellectual property rights owned or claimed by the organization he represents (if any) or third parties.

For patents, please refer to the ELF Patent Policy at ELF 103:2026.

NOTE  This is in alignment with IETF RFC 2026, 10.3.1.5 and IETF RFC 2026, 10.3.1.6.

5.8  Warranty

The contributor is deemed to agree to the terms and conditions set in this document when submitting a contribution.

The contributor represents that there are no limits to the contributor’s ability to make the grants acknowledgments and agreements detailed in this document that are reasonably and personally known to the contributor.

This agreement is made on his or her own behalf, on behalf of the organization (if any), or on behalf of the owners of any propriety rights in the contribution.

Where a contribution identifies contributors in addition to the contributor(s) who provided it, the submitter(s) represent that each other named contributor was made aware of and agreed to accept the same terms and conditions on his own behalf, on behalf of any organization he may represent and any known owner of any proprietary rights in the contribution.

This warrant is perpetual and will not be revoked by ELF or its successors or assigns.

NOTE  This is in alignment with IETF RFC 2026, 10.3.1. == Trademarks

5.9  General

The requirements listed in this clause aligns with ITU-T Marks Guidelines 2.0.

5.10  Impartiality of deliverables

Proper names, trademarks, service marks or certification marks of specific companies/organizations, products or services should not be included in the text of an ELF standardization deliverable if it appears that they might cause any endorsement effect on a reader of the deliverable.

NOTE  ELF standardization deliverables generally provide a description of features from which interoperable implementations can be developed. As such, the appearance of an endorsement of products, services and companies/organizations are not acceptable.

5.11  Non-endorsement usage

Trademarks, service marks or certification marks may be included in an ELF standardization deliverable in order to describe certain technologies or services pertaining to the relevant marks, given that the inclusion does not cause appearance of an endorsement.

Here are some situations where this usage is acceptable.

  1. The mark is used to refer to a particular facility that is widely recognized as a sole authorized source.

    EXAMPLE 1  A reference to a proprietary service with a trademark associated with a specific protocol identifier allocated by the ITU-T or IANA.

  2. The mark is contained in the designation of a reference.

    EXAMPLE 2  Standards bodies often include their name as part of the identifier of their standards. A deliverable may reference “ISO/IEC xxxx”, “ITU-T xxxx”, where “ISO”, “IEC” and “ITU-T” are protected marks.

  3. The mark is a well-known reference to a standardized industry approach.

    EXAMPLE 3  “WiFi”, “Bluetooth”, “GSM”.

5.12  Proper use references

With justifiable reasons, it is permissible to make “proper use” references to marks owned by an external party in an ELF standardization deliverable, however the usage shall adhere to the following guidelines set below in order to avoid infringement of rights relating to such marks.

A mark shall only be used as part of accurate, factual statements as a means to identify (but not to endorse) a particular object (such as the designations of referenced standards in the text of a deliverable).

Marks should be used in accordance with the following guidelines:

  1. a mark should be used as a proper adjective followed by a generic name or noun;

    NOTE  Marks are proper adjectives that indicate the source of goods, services or things, and not to be used as a verb or noun.

  2. marks must not be combined in text;

  3. marks must not be altered, shortened or abbreviated.

6  Software

6.1  General

In situations where software is included in ELF standardization deliverables, the following rules must be adhered to.

6.2  Source code contributions

Software contributions included in a standardization deliverable must have its source code made available free of charge and not require implementers to be subject to a third-party license that does not meet the software licensing requirements set forth in this clause.

The license of a software contribution shall permit use, modification and redistribution of the software for any purpose, including in derivative works, without discrimination.

The copyright notice and the applicable license of the software shall be clearly identified in the deliverable.

NOTE  This is in alignment with ITU Software Copyright Guidelines.


Bibliography

[1]  ELF 102:2026, ELF Directive: Standard document requirements

[2]  IETF RFC 20261) , BRADNER, S. and INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE. The Internet Standards Process — Revision 3. Best current practice. RFC Series

[3]  ITU Software Copyright Guidelines, ITU Software Copyright Guidelines, 7/12/2011

[4]  ITU-T Marks Guidelines 2.0, ITU-T GUIDELINES RELATED TO THE INCLUSION OF MARKS IN ITU-T RECOMMENDATIONS, Issue 2.0, November 2005.