COVESA Revises IP Policy to Align with Open Practices

In 2009, Akio Toyoda became President of Toyota, the Bitcoin network was introduced, Tiger Woods had a career-shortening car accident, and Cristiano Ronaldo was named FIFA’s player of the year. It was also the year that COVESA’s former Intellectual Property (IP) Policy was drafted and became the governing document of the alliance.

Both COVESA and the state-of-the-art for IP management have changed significantly since then. So, the COVESA Board instituted a revised IP Policy during the Berlin AMM in May to govern the technical work of the alliance.

The Policy can be summarized in a single word: openness. For many years, COVESA and its predecessor, GENIVI Alliance, have operated their technical work with an open collaboration model and licensed all outputs with open source licensing.  The new IP Policy now reflects that operating model, documenting rules for licensing and contribution (by both members and non-members). It also does away with outdated terminology, heavyweight approval processes, and clarifies that COVESA produces deliverables of many types, including “any document, code, or other Alliance output, in draft or final form, produced by a Team, Group, or Project of the Alliance.”

To align with the new IP Policy, the Board also introduced a slightly amended Bylaws. The amendments were made to update the alliance’s specific objectives section (aligning to a connected vehicle orientation), renaming the former System Architecture Team to the Technical Steering Team, and adding the Start-up Associate membership category.

Both documents can be found in the Member Application Forms/Downloads section under “Join” on the  COVESA website. COVESA encourages all interested parties to read the updated IP Policy for reference when contributing to COVESA activities.