Title: Adobe Systems Incorporated's Statement about IPR claimed in draft-zilles-pdf Received: 1 March, 2004 From: Larry Masinter (To meet RFC 3667 disclosure rules for draft-zilles-pdf): ============================================================== Adobe Systems Incorporated makes intellectual property claims and grants rights, related to PDF, in the PDF Reference, Fourth Edition[1] as amended by errata[2]. In turn, that text makes reference to the Adobe Patent Clarification Notice[3]. The claims and grants of [1] as amended by [2] (with references to 'this book' appropriately modified), are reproduced in Part 1 below. The section of [3] related to PDF is reproduced in Part 2 below. References: [1] Adobe Systems Incorporated, "PDF Reference, Fourth Edition", Version 1.5, August 2003. http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/pdf/specifications.jsp [2] Adobe Systems Incorporated, "Errata for PDF Reference, Fourth Edition", December 2003. http://partners.adobe.com/asn/acrobat/sdk/public/docs/errata.txt [3] Adobe Systems Incorporated, "Adobe Patent Clarification Notice". http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/legalnotices.jsp ================================================ Part 1 (adapted from [1] as modified by [2]): The general idea of using an interchange format for electronic documents is in the public domain. Anyone is free to devise a set of unique data structures and operators that define an interchange format for electronic documents. However, Adobe Systems Incorporated owns the copyright for the particular data structures and operators and the written specification constituting the interchange format called the Portable Document Format. Thus, these elements of the Portable Document Format may not be copied without Adobe's permission. Adobe will enforce its copyright. Adobe's intention is to maintain the integrity of the Portable Document Format standard. This enables the public to distinguish between the Portable Document Format and other interchange formats for electronic documents. However, Adobe desires to promote the use of the Portable Document Format for information interchange among diverse products and applications. Accordingly, Adobe gives anyone copyright permission, subject to the conditions stated below, to: * Prepare files whose content conforms to the Portable Document Format * Write drivers and applications that produce output represented in the Portable Document Format * Write software that accepts input in the form of the Portable Document Format and displays, prints, or otherwise interprets the contents * Copy Adobe's copyrighted list of data structures and operators, as well as the example code and PostScript language function definitions in the written specification, to the extent necessary to use the Portable Document Format for the purposes above. The conditions of such copyright permission are: * Authors of software that accepts input in the form of the Portable Document Format must make reasonable efforts to ensure that the software they create respects the access permissions and permissions controls listed in Table 3.20 of the PDF Reference[1], to the extent that they are used in any particular document. These access permissions express the rights that the document's author has granted to users of the document. It is the responsibility of Portable Document Format consuming software to respect the author's intent. * Anyone who uses the copyrighted list of data structures and operators, as stated above, must include an appropriate copyright notice. This limited right to use the copyrighted list of data structures and operators does not include the right to copy the PDF Reference, other copyrighted material from Adobe, or the software in any of Adobe's products that use the Portable Document Format, in whole or in part, nor does it include the right to use any Adobe patents, except as may be permitted by an official Adobe Patent Clarification Notice [3]. Acrobat, Acrobat Capture, Adobe Reader, ePaper, the "Get Adobe Reader" Web logo, the "Adobe PDF" Web logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, and logos used by Adobe (the "Marks") are the registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and other countries. Nothing in the PDF Reference is intended to grant you any right or license to use the Marks for any purpose. =================================================== Part 2: Patent Clarification Notice: Reading and Writing PDF Files (exact quote of [3]) Adobe has a number of patents covering technology that is disclosed in the Portable Document Format (PDF) Specification, version 1.3 and later, as documented in PDF Reference and associated Technical Notes (the "Specification"). Adobe desires to promote the use of PDF for information interchange among diverse products and applications. Accordingly, the following patents are licensed on a royalty-free, non-exclusive basis for the term of each patent and for the sole purpose of developing software that produces, consumes, and interprets PDF files that are compliant with the Specification: U.S. Patent Numbers: * 5,634,064 * 5,737,599 * 5,781,785 * 5,819,301 * 6,028,583 * 6,289,364 * 6,421,460 In addition, the following patent is licensed on a royalty-free, non-exclusive basis for its term and for the sole purpose of developing software that produces PDF files that are compliant with the Specification (specifically excluding, however, software that consumes and/or interprets PDF files): U.S. Patent Numbers: * 5,860,074