GRF · Legal
Standards and IPR policy
This policy governs contributions made through The Global Risks Forum (GRF) to standards work, including the Nexus Standards, and to the texts of GRF councils, dialogues and working groups. The Nexus Standards are an open programme of standards for systemic risk, published by the Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI Canada) as publisher of record. The policy applies to every contribution GRF receives now, and to every council and working group from its first session. Version of 19 October 2026, effective on that date.
01Contents
Standards and IPR policy in four parts.
02Principles
Open, royalty-free and voluntary.
Open
Published for all
Published texts are released under CC BY 4.0 and can be read, reused and implemented by anyone.
Royalty-free
No patent toll
Participants license, without royalty, the patent claims essential to the texts they help write.
Voluntary
No one is bound
No one is required to implement a text, and GRF does not certify conformance or exclude anyone for choosing another method.
03Patents
Royalty-free commitment and disclosure.
- 01
Royalty-free commitment
Each participant that contributes to a text grants everyone who implements the final published text a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence under its essential claims: the patent claims, owned or controlled by the participant or its affiliates now or later, that are necessarily infringed by implementing the text. Other terms of the licence are reasonable and non-discriminatory. The commitment binds anyone to whom the claims are transferred.
- 02
Disclosure duty
A participant that knows of a patent or application, its own or another’s, that may contain an essential claim tells the chair and the integrity concern form in writing as soon as it becomes aware, naming the patent and the part of the text concerned. Disclosure is in good faith; no patent search is required. Disclosures are published with the text.
- 03
Exclusion
A participant may exclude a specific essential claim from its commitment only by written notice, naming the claim and the text, before the text is published for public comment. The group then decides whether to change the text. Claims that cover text the participant itself contributed cannot be excluded.
- 04
Defensive suspension
The licence may be suspended for anyone who asserts an essential claim against an implementer of the same text.
04Copyright
Working texts and other publishers’ standards.
- 01
Working texts
Contributions are licensed under the contributor terms. GRF holds the working texts of its groups for the group, and GCRI Canada holds working texts of the Nexus Standards as publisher of record. Participants use working texts inside the group’s work, and share them outside only as the group decides. Final texts are published under CC BY 4.0.
- 02
Standards of other publishers
Texts of ISO, IEC, ITU, national standards bodies and other publishers are protected by copyright. Do not paste, translate or upload their text, tables or figures into a working text or meeting record. Cite them by number, edition and clause, describe them in your own words and quote only short passages as far as the law of quotation allows, with the source. Participants who need the full text obtain it from its publisher.
- 03
Names and conformance
A standard’s name and any statement about conformance follow the rules published with it. GRF does not certify, accredit or approve conformance, and a Nexus identifier identifies a record without certifying it.
05Meetings and competition law
Rules for every meeting.
- 01
Purpose
Standards and council work is precompetitive and serves the public interest. Participants never use it to restrain competition between them.
- 02
Never discussed
Prices, fees, costs, margins, wages, bids and tenders, customers, markets or territories, production or capacity, decisions to deal or not to deal with any firm, and any other competitively sensitive information of a participant.
- 03
Agendas and minutes
Every meeting has a written agenda circulated in advance, and minutes that record attendance, topics and decisions, kept by GRF. The chair stops any discussion that moves to a topic above and records that in the minutes. Concerns go to the integrity concern form.
- 04
Law
These rules reflect the Swiss Cartel Act, article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, section 1 of the US Sherman Act and the Competition Act of Canada.
06Questions
Questions and answers.
What is an essential claim?
A patent claim that cannot be avoided when implementing the published text, because no technically feasible alternative within the text exists. Claims on technology the text does not require, or on how a product is built beyond what the text specifies, are not essential.
Can I paste a clause of an ISO standard into a working text?
No. Cite the standard by number, edition and clause and describe the requirement in your own words. Short quotations are allowed only as far as the law of quotation permits.
Does this policy apply before councils are constituted?
Yes. It applies to every contribution GRF receives now and to each council and working group from its first session.
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