Subject: TIFF use within IEEE standards / Lack of license

From: Scott Foshee <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 20:52:02 -0700

Please circulate to IEEE-ISTO and IEEE-SA management, Board of 
Directors and Board of Governors.

Greetings gentlemen,

I am the person at Adobe responsible for TIFF.  It has come to my 
attention that the IEEE is developing two standards within the IEEE's 
printer working group based on Adobe's TIFF specification without a 
license grant from Adobe.  Adobe has provided limited use TIFF 
license grants to third parties in the past and I can assist you in 
seeking to obtain a license grant.

Since this issue initially came to my attention, I had an opportunity 
to participate in a printer working group telephone conference where 
I informed the working group of Adobe IP issues.  A license has yet 
to be granted for any IEEE use of TIFF and Adobe has yet to be 
contacted by the IEEE regarding their desired use of Adobe's TIFF 
standard.

Additionally, it is necessary to inform you that the IETF has been 
notified by Adobe that their use of TIFF in the development of the 
TIFF FX standard is outside the scope of the license granted to them 
by Adobe. We have communicated ongoing concerns in this area to the 
IETF editors since the Spring of 1998, elevating our concern to other 
IETF officers in December of 2001 and the IAB in March of 2001. This 
issue is currently being considered by the IETF Internet Fax working 
group and has yet to be resolved.

Please defer TIFF and/or TIFF FX based standardization pending (i) 
the execution of a license grant from Adobe to the IEEE, and (ii) the 
resolution of the contract issues between Adobe and the IETF 
concerning TIFF FX.

Adobe understands that the IETF specifically declines to take a 
stance on IP use in its standards and thus defers decisions on the IP 
status of technology in its standards to the members of its working 
groups and those who choose to adopt/implement their technology, and 
whatever internal processes these companies/organizations have for 
evaluating the IP of technology they choose to include in their 
products or support in standards. Thus, mere use of IETF standards 
does not imply compliance with an Adobe TIFF license.

Finally, IEEE use of Adobe's TIFF standard is distinct from Adobe 
choosing to participate in an IEEE standards technical committee. If 
you wish to pursue the use of TIFF in your standards, please feel 
free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Scott Foshee