Managing IP for Open Technology and OSS Programs

MANAGING IP2014 OSEHRA Open Source Summit | Rockville, MD

9/3/2014 2

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UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

2014 OSEHRA Open Source Summit | Rockville, MD

Who is this guy?

9/3/20142014 OSEHRA Open Source Summit | Rockville, MD 3

MARCUS A. STREIPSAttorney-Advisor (Intellectual Property)

United States Army Medical Research & Materiel Command

Fort Detrick, MD

E-mail: [email protected]

Management Case Study:

My Secretary

Isabel “Izzy” Streips

Class 1 Fairy

Alignment: Chaotic/Good

Dictation/Typing Skills: Marginal

Cuteness Scale: “off-the-charts”

Decision: Keep

OVERVIEW

OSEHRA Mission


“BUILD and SUPPORT an OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY of users, developers,

service providers, and researchers engaged in advancing electronic health record

software and related health information technology.”OSEHRA’s mission includes the

creation of a VENDOR-NEUTRAL community for the creation, evolution, promotion

and support of an open source Electronic Health Record (EHR). This community

will operate with the TRANSPARENCY and AGILITY that characterize open source

software initiatives. This entails not only the development of a community of

software experts, clinicians, and implementers, but also a robust ecosystem of

complementary products, capabilities and services. OSEHRA is a service

organization. In one sense, our “product” is a thriving open source EHR community.

However, a more practical description of our products would list the services

OSEHRA provides to SUPPORT that community, such as our software repository,

testing, certification, and working group support. ”

Why are we here?


• BUILD

• SUPPORT

• TRANSPARENT

• AGILE

• VENDER-NEUTRAL

• OPEN SOURCE

• COMMUNITY

1. Innovation comes from the outside. It must be channeled inside.

2. Software needs an engaged Community.

3. Software requires an involved Community.

4. Attract interested people with shared goals. Earn their trust.

5. Transparency: remove any obstacles to the free flow of information

6. Meritocratic governance driven by: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose

7. Release Early, Release Often.

8. Avoid Private Discussions.

9. Establish Credibility. Build relationships with Open Source Communities.

10.Welcome the unexpected. Listen carefully to the Community.

SOURCE: http://osehra.org/sites/default/files/osehra_licensing_terms_v.1.0.pdf

Open Source Principles


How do we make this happen?

▪ Coordinate Patent Strategy with OSS

▪ Develop Open Standards

▪ Create a Software and Data Management Plan

▪ Run Open Technology Development (OTD) Projects


DEFINITIONS

OSEHRA System Architecture

• Architecture

• Standards

• Patents

• Software

• Data & Documentation


SOURCE: http://architecture.osehra.org/

IP Involved in Open Technology Development (OTD)

▪ Open Architecture

▪ Open Data

▪ Open Standards

▪ Open Source Software (Commercial License)


Open System Architecture (OSA)

▪ Modular Design

▪ Consensus Based Standards

▪ Validated Openness

▪ Use of OSS doesn’t mean OSA

The Open Systems Joint Task Force (OSJTF) definition


Open Data

1. Freely and Publically Accessible Agile

2. No restriction on Redistribution Vendor-Neutral

3. Allow modification and derivative works Agile

4. Absence of Technological Restriction Transparent

5. Attribution Requirement Optional Agile

6. Versioning Requirement Optional Agile

7. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups Vendor-Neutral

8. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor Agile/Vendor-Neutral

9. No additional agreements Agile

10. License must NOT be Specific to a Package Agile/Vendor Neutral

11. License must NOT Restrict the Distribution of Other Works Agile

SOURCE: http://opendefinition.org/okd/


15

Open Standards Requirement of OSS

1. Must allow interoperable implementation Transparent

2. Freely and Publically Avaliable Agile/Vendor-Neutral

3. Patents: royalty-free, unrestricted, non-assertiong Vendor-Neutral

4. No Agreements required Agile/Transparent

5. Attribution Agile

6. No OSR-Incompatible Dependencies Agile/Vendor-Neutral

SOURCE: http://opensource.org/osr


Open Source Software

SOURCE: http://opensource.org/osd See Also: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

1. Free Redistribution Vendor-Neutral

2. The program must include source code Transparent

3. The license must allow derived works Agile

4. Integrity of the Author’s Source Code Agile

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups Vendor-Neutral

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavors Agile/Vendor-Neutral

7. No need to execute additional licenses Agile

8. License Must Not be Specific to a Product Agile

9. License Must Not Restrict other Software Agile

10. License Must be Technology-Neutral Vendor-Neutral


“Computer Software”

▪ Computer programs that comprise a series of instructions, rules, routines, or statements, …, that allow or cause a computer to perform a specific operation or series of operations.

▪ Source code listings, design details, algorithms, processes, flow charts, formulas, and related materials that would enable the computer program to be produced, created, or compiled.

FAR Definition

18

.OSS is “Commercial Software”

▪ DoD guidance states, open source software is generally regarded as commercial computer software for which the source code is publicly available to all users under specific licensing terms and conditions that provide a user the right to use, modify, and redistribute the modified open source software to the public.

▪ See DFARS 252.227-7014(a)(1), and FAR 2.101 ( ‘Commercial computer software’ means any computer software that is a commercial item.)

▪ Computer software – if commercial computer software is being acquired, the contracting officer may use the vendor’s commercial license, if acceptable, or may use FAR 52.227-19

FAR/DFAR

Source: https://www.csiac.org/journal_article/open-source-software-commercial


Coordinate Patent Strategy

Patents and OSS

• Patents Restrict software use and

distribution

• Patents undermine emergence of a

commercial marketplace

• Patents raise suspicion of costly litigation

• Patents go against principles of vendor-

neutrality, agility and community

Keep Patents Out of OSS Code

SOURCE:

http://osehra.org/sites/default/files/osehra_licensing_terms_v.1.0.pdf


OSS COMMUNITY SURVEY

Surveys and anecdotal evidence show that not only the vast

majority of open source programmers, but a majority of all

programmers, think that software patents should be abolished

entirely

Sources:

groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/lpf/Whatsnew/survey.html

http://producingoss.com/en/patents.html#idp10023568


Patentability of Business Methods

Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. 593 (2010), was a case decided by the Supreme Court

of the United States holding that the machine-or-transformation test is not the sole

test for determining the patent eligibility of a process, but rather "a useful and

important clue, an investigative tool, for determining whether some claimed

inventions are processes under § 101.“ In so doing, the Supreme Court affirmed the

rejection of an application for a patent on a method of hedging losses in one

segment of the energy industry by making investments in other segments of that

industry, on the basis that the abstract investment strategy set forth in the

application was simply not patentable subject matter.


Patentability of Computer Software

Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International is a legal case about patentable subject

matter (patent eligibility) that the United States Supreme Court heard in 2014,

presenting the issue of whether certain claims about a computer-implemented,

electronic escrow service for facilitating financial transactions concern abstract

ideas ineligible for patent protection. The patents were held to be invalid because

the claims were drawn to an abstract idea, and implementing those claims on a

computer was not enough to transform that idea to a patentable invention.


Develop Open Standards

Open Standards Requirement of OSS


SOURCE: http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-standards-open-source.html

Copyright 2013 David A. Wheeler and licensed under the Creative Commons “Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License”; the GNU

Free Documentation License; or the GNU GPL (version 2 or later)

Open standards aid FLOSS projects:

• Users of open standards aren’t locked into a particular implementation.

• Easily switch to a different implementation – Proprietary/FLOSS implementation.

• The standard itself helps developers know what to do.

Patent Reciprocity and Open Standards


• Create a common pool of patent claims.

• Condition reciprocity for participation in the standards process

• Condition reciprocity for commercial distribution of software.

• Explicit in license conditions

• Implicit through defensive termination provisions

• Covenants not to sue (Sun/Microsoft XML standard)

SOURCE: http://www.rosenlaw.com/pdf-files/DefiningOpenStandards.pdf

Copyright 2013 Lawrence Rosen. Licensed under the Open Software License version 3.0 (“OSL 3.0”)

Patent Reciprocity and Open Standards


SOURCE: http://www.hl7.org/legal/patentinfo.cfm

Copyright 2007-2013 Health Level Seven International

Software & Data Management Plan

Government Data Rights (DoD)

SOURCE:

http://www.acq.osd.mil/log/mr/psm/09_technical_data_rights_acquisition_strategy_guertin_2nov2011_v2.pdf

Licensing Landscape

SOURCE:


IP Strategy Decisions

▪ What limits competition and third-party integration?

▪ How do we manage acquisition of components?

▪ How can we use specially negotiated licenses (SNLs) effectively?

▪ Where is it acceptable to have Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS), Limited or Restricted rights?

▪ Where do we want to encourage innovation from small business (SBIR program)

SOURCE:



Data Management System


349/3/20142014 OSEHRA Open Source Summit | Rockville, MD











OTD Projects

Running Open Technology Development Projects

1) Determine Reuse Options

2) Identify the Projects to be Established (mission)

3) Choose a Common License (usability)

4) Establish Governance (forkability)

5) Establish Collaboration (distribution)

6) Create Technical Direction (modularity)

7) Use Open Standards

8) Announce

Source: SoftwareTech News, February 2011 Vol. 14 No. 1

https://www.csiac.org/sites/default/files/journal_files/2011_02_01_DoDandOpenSourceSoftware.pdf


Producing Open Source Software

1) Identify Projects to be Established (mission)

2) Choose a Common License (useability)

3) Establish Governance (forkability/BD)

4) Manage Volunteers (delegation/credit)

5) Set the tone (cultivate)

6) Announce

Source: Karl Fogel “How to Run a Successful Free Software Project” under a CreativeCommons Attribution-ShareAlike (3.0) license.

http://producingoss.com/en/index.html


Publicly Releasing OSS Developed for Government

1) What contract applies, what are its terms?

2) Do you have the copyright licenses?

3) Do you have the necessary IP rights?

4) Do you have permission to release publicly?

5) Do you have usable deliverables?

6) Is your software properly marked (FAR/DFAR)?

7) Do you have the authority to release?

Source: Cyber Security & Information Systems Information Analysis Center (CSIAC)

https://www.csiac.org/journal_article/publicly-releasing-open-source-software-developed-us-government



Source: https://www.csiac.org/journal_article/publicly-releasing-open-source-software-developed-us-government

Issues to Consider when Using OSS

▪ Inability to Negotiate

▪ License Compatibility

▪ Redistribution Issues

▪ Authorization and Consent


OSS Compatibility


SOURCE: http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/floss-license-slide.pdf

Copyright 2013 David A. Wheeler and licensed under the Creative Commons “Attribution-Share Alike

3.0 License”; the GNU Free Documentation License; or the GNU GPL (version 2 or later)

Program & Data Manager Actions

▪ Ensure compatible licenses for all software that is linked to, adapted to, integrated, combined or merged with other software

▪ Ensure license does not impose a foreseeable future distribution obligation on the Government

▪ Ensure license termination provisions are in line with Government requirements.

Source: DoD Open Systems Architecture Contract Guidebook v.1.1

https://acc.dau.mil/adl/en-US/664093/file/73330/OSAGuidebook%20v%201_1%20final.pdf


Contractor Use of OSS in Contract Performance

▪ Ensure use does not create any Government obligations w.r.t. software deliverables

▪ Ensure use does not grant to any third party rights to or immunities under Government IP.

▪ Ensure use does not require the Government to agree to terms that are contrary to law without express Government consent.

Source: DoD Open Systems Architecture Contract Guidebook v.1.1



SOURCES

Sources



http://architecture.osehra.org


http://www.rosenlaw.com/pdf-files/DefiningOpenStandards.pdf

http://www.hl7.org/legal/patentinfo.cfm

http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

http://opendefinition.org/okd

http://opendatacommons.org/licenses

http://creativecommons.org/choose

http://opendefinition.org/licenses/nonconformant/

http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-standards-open-source.html

http://www.hl7.org/documentcenter/public_temp_B65E8487-1C23-BA17-0CA344F46F3417A2/pressreleases/HL7_PRESS_20120904.pdf

http://opensource.org/osd


http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

http://flosscc.opensource.org/content/spread-the-word

http://www.openfoundry.org/en/foss-license-category

http://www.openfoundry.org/en/comparison-of-licenses


http://architecture.osehra.org/


http://www.rosenlaw.com/pdf-files/DefiningOpenStandards.pdf

http://www.hl7.org/legal/patentinfo.cfm

http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

http://opendefinition.org/okd

http://opendatacommons.org/licenses

http://creativecommons.org/choose

http://opendefinition.org/licenses/nonconformant/

http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-standards-open-source.html

http://www.hl7.org/documentcenter/public_temp_B65E8487-1C23-BA17-0CA344F46F3417A2/pressreleases/HL7_PRESS_20120904.pdf

http://opensource.org/osd


http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

http://flosscc.opensource.org/content/spread-the-word

http://www.openfoundry.org/en/foss-license-category

http://www.openfoundry.org/en/comparison-of-licenses

Sources (cont.)


http://www.openfoundry.org/LicenseWizard/index.htm?en

http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/floss

http://osrc.blackducksoftware.com/data/licenses/

http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/open_source_license_popularity

http://www.openlogic.com/news/bid/154646/OpenLogic-Scanning-Data-Reveals-OSS-Developers-Choose-GPL-Enterprises-Prefer-Apache

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/04/pick-a-license-any-license.html

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/foss-primer.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Linking_and_derived_works

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6366

http://www.cs.binghamton.edu

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LGPLStaticVsDynamic

http://www.openfoundry.org/en/compatibility-of-licenses

http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/floss-license-slide.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Linking_and_derived_works

http://opensource.org/proliferation-report

http://www.openfoundry.org/LicenseWizard/index.htm?en

http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/floss

http://osrc.blackducksoftware.com/data/licenses/

http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/open_source_license_popularity/

http://www.openlogic.com/news/bid/154646/OpenLogic-Scanning-Data-Reveals-OSS-Developers-Choose-GPL-Enterprises-Prefer-Apache

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/04/pick-a-license-any-license.html

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/foss-primer.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6366

http://www.cs.binghamton.edu/

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

http://www.openfoundry.org/en/compatibility-of-licenses

http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/floss-license-slide.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License

http://opensource.org/proliferation-report

Sources (cont.)


http://www.cendi.gov/publications/09-1FAQ_OpenSourceSoftware_FINAL_110109.pdf

http://dodcio.defense.gov/OpenSourceSoftwareFAQ.aspx

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/lpf/Whatsnew/survey.html






https://www.csiac.org/journal_article/open-source-software-commercial


http://dodcio.defense.gov/OpenSourceSoftwareFAQ.aspx

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/lpf/Whatsnew/survey.html






https://www.csiac.org/journal_article/open-source-software-commercial

https://acc.dau.mil/adl/en-US/664093/file/73330/OSAGuidebook v 1_1 final.pdf

https://acc.dau.mil/adl/en-US/664093/file/73330/OSAGuidebook v 1_1 final.pdf

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