PWG-ANNOUNCE> FYI, (New Printer Working Group IP Policy) notifications sent.

[Jerry Thrasher <[e-mail]>]

PWG Members,

The following email note was sent to the primary/designated 
representatives of all currently
PWG member companies.  The attachement (a .zip file with the extension 
changed to .piz)
that is removed in this email, is roughly 2.5 MBytes therefore some email 
systems may 
quaranteen the email. 

If you did not receive this email, and think you should have, please let 
me know..

Jerry Thrasher
Printer Working Group Chair
Senior Engineer, WW Corporate Standards
Lexmark International Inc.
Ph:859-825-4056, Fax:[phone]
Email:thrasher(at)lexmark(dot)com
----- Forwarded by Jerry Thrasher/Lex/Lexmark on 09/02/2008 01:51 PM -----




Greetings:

As the primary, or designated, contact for the Printer Working Group.
I am sending you this announcement regarding an upcoming change in 
the operating procedures and intellectual property policy for 
membership in the Printer Working Group.

Background:
The PWG's IP policy was originally drafted more than ten years ago
before the PWG became affiliated with the IEEE-ISTO.
Since then there have been many changes to the language used in IP 
policies
of peer organizations to the PWG and other standards setting organizations
to increase the precision of the language used in the policy. 

The PWG Officers and Steering Committee have determined that the 
PWG's IP Policy needs to be updated to reflect the current 
generally accepted language used in the industry. In fact
the new IP Policy is EXACTLY the same as the IEEE Standards 
Association (used with permission).

Note: The basic intent of the PWG's policy is NOT changing. 
The PWG has operated with the ability for a PWG member to
choose whether they will license IP or not and under what
"reasonable" terms if they choose.
 
Attached is a (zip) file (please rename the extension from
piz to zip), that contains the following:

1. A presentation (PWG_IP_Policy_Update_Overview.pdf) that 
describes what changes are being made to the PWG Process and
the PWG IP Policy.

2. The NEW IP Policy (pwg-ip-policy-20080827.pdf)

3. The Updated PWG Process (pwg-process30-20080827, clean
and changebar,.pdf)

4. The NEW PWG Letter of Assurance (PWG_LOA_20080827.pdf)

5. The updated PWG membership form (pwg_membership_form_20080827.pdf)

6. The original PWG Process 2.0 (pwg-process20.pdf) that contains
the PWG's original IP Policy (Section 10).

This (zip) file can also be downloaded from the PWG's FTP site at:

ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/general/New_PWG_IP.zip

It is EXTREMELY important that you review the new IP Policy,LOA, and
PWG Process document with your companies legal staff, and respond with
any issues.  Note: Since the IP Policy was adopted verbatim from the 
IEEE's, only 
issues that would cause your company to withdraw from the PWG should be
raised.

Please try to complete this review by the end of October 2008. 
In November, when the ISTO sends out invoices for PWG membership renewal
for 2009, a new membership agreement acknowledging the new IP policy
and PWG Process 3.0 will also be required. 

Please send any questions or issues to the PWG Officers.

<email addresses removed>

Thank you for your prompt action:

Jerry Thrasher
Printer Working Group Chair
Senior Engineer, WW Corporate Standards
Lexmark International Inc.
Ph:859-825-4056, Fax:[phone]
Email:thrasher(at)lexmark(dot)com

[attachment "New_PWG_IP.piz" deleted by Jerry Thrasher/Lex/Lexmark]