For Immediate Release Contact

Intellectual Property Policy

Effective March 6, 2005

ARTS and NRF are pleased to inform you that after extensive investigations and analysis the ARTS Board has approved an Intellectual Property (IP) Policy. This Policy helps protect those who implement ARTS standards from potential undisclosed IP infringement suits and permits members to contribute ideas and protected property in a manner that retains original ownership.

The attached Policy was developed by ARTS and NRF over a 24+ month period with dedicated assistance by attorneys from IBM, Microsoft, and Seiko Epson. Their involvement provided arguably the best IP knowledge in the technology space and ensured a fair and balanced approach between competitors with the protection of the industry and ARTS members as the principal concern.

With this Policy in place, retailers and vendors can implement ARTS standards with a significantly lower risk of lawsuits due to undisclosed intellectual property of fellow ARTS members being inadvertently embedded in the standard. For example, the Policy contains a grace period that provides time to modify the standard to remove infringing IP.

In recent years intellectual property claims have become a significant issue affecting virtually all companies. Major legal suits have been filed against those who have allegedly sought to gain market advantage by embedding their IP into widely adopted standards in order to collect royalties. Many standards organizations have created or are working diligently to create IP Policies that protect their members without restricting participation. The ARTS/NRF Policy provides additional protection for our members and encourages participation. It is based on the principle that IP embedded in standards should be contributed on a reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) basis, or better, meaning everyone is treated fairly and equally. Adoption will require that we formalize our development policies to ensure that all members have adequate time to review prospective standards for technical accuracy and intellectual property.

We encourage you to review:

Our objective is to increase participation in the development of ARTS standards, protect the implementers and encourage major vendors to share knowledge and research to the benefit of the industry and ARTS standards. We think we have accomplished this mission and hope you will agree.

All ARTS meetings after March 4 will operate under the new IP Policy. Attendance at ARTS meetings by members will be conditioned on acceptance of the Policy; and all outside guests attending technical meetings will be asked to sign a document indicating their acceptance of the ARTS IP Policy.

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