The IETF Standards Process
The basic definition of the IETF standards process is
in RFC 2026 (BCP 9).
However, this document has been amended several times.
The intellectual property rules are now separate, in
BCP 78 (rights in contributions) and
BCP 79 (rights in technology).
Another update is
BCP 92 (independent submissions to the RFC Editor).
An overview of many process documents is available
here.