Free Protocols Foundation
The Free Protocols Foundation (FPF) is an independent public forum, dedicated to the support of patent-free protocols. It undertakes the following major activities:
- Provision of an independent, external forum in which an author may make an initial declaration that a protocol is intended to be patent-free.
- Definition of a a set of patent-related Working Group procedures which ensure that the resulting protocol will remain functionally patent-free. Any development organization is free to adopt these procedures with regard to its own protocols.
- Provision of an independent, external forum in which a Working Group may make a public declaration that it follows these procedures.
- Publication of a statement of the patent right assertion whenever patent rights are asserted with respect to any protocol which has been declared patent-free to the FPF.
- Assistance in obtaining from the patent-holder a non-restrictive license to implement the patented process as part of the protocol, whenever patent rights are known to exist with respect to a protocol which has been declared patent-free to the FPF
- Acting as a clearing house for information and articles relating to protocol patent-freedom.
- Supporting the creation and development of patent-free alternative protocols to existing patented protocols.
- Supporting fights against invalid software patents in the courts.
The FPF provides its free publication service to any company, organization, or individual wishing to make a patent-free declaration. The FPF also provides a public notification service of these declarations. All services of the FPF are free of charge.