UNCEFACT Key issues and risks surrounding Liaison arrangements

UN/CEFACT Key issues and risks surrounding Liaison arrangements Presented by the UN/CEFACT Standards Liaison Rapporteur UNITED NATIONS CENTRE FOR TRADE FACILITATION AND ELECTRONIC BUSINESS Under the auspices of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Introduction q Standards Development Organizations (SDO) increasingly collaborate with one another. o q Rewards and Risks All Standards Development Organizations are different. o Liaison development and Referencing Policies UN/CEFACT

Main varieties of Liaison Arrangements q Informal Agreements o q Something short of a formal joint relationship Formal Agreements o Formal joint development / sponsorship effort with a common objective on an effort of stated scope in a coordinated and complimentary effort UN/CEFACT

Informal Liaison Arrangements q Greatest potential for problems o No written guidelines on how the collaboration will work Ø Ø How will contributions be contributed and licensed Patent disclosure obligations Who will own and be in charge of future updates Licenses implementators need to create compliant product § Sub-licensing? UN/CEFACT

Formal Liaison Agreements q q Organizations (as ANSI, ITU, ISO, OASIS, W 3 C, others) have formal written procedures and guidelines on how to, and with whom under what circumstances they may formal liaisons Key areas covered in a formal relationship: o o o o Scope Relationship Procedures Applicapable Intellectual Property IP management Naming Announcements And more. . . UN/CEFACT

Submitting work to another SDO q Important to have a defined policy governing submission of work to other organizations q Similar concerns as with forming a formal liaison q Need for operating procedures: o o o Who may start a process Acceptable status of work that can be transferred And more. . . UN/CEFACT

Key Risks and Issues with Referencing q Another common practice called ‘referencing’ o Where there may be little or no coordination between organizations: Ø Ø q NORMATIVE referencing INFORMATIVE referencing Best practice for informative referencing is to follow the same procedures as normative referencing UN/CEFACT

Next Steps q q q Create a CEFACT Liaison Development Policy & Liaison Operating Procedures Support the UN Secretariat with necessary competent legal services to manage the CEFACT portfolio of Liaison relationships Encourage CEFACT Groups to employ formal Liaison practices to accelerate development and avoid duplicative work UN/CEFACT

UN/CEFACT SIMPLE, TRANSPARENT AND EFFECTIVE PROCESSES FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS. UN/CEFACT