Request for Review and Comment – Invited Experts Policy
Ben Wilson
Dear CA/Browser Forum Participants,
On behalf of the IPR Subcommittee, I am requesting your review and feedback, by close of business on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, on two new draft documents:
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Draft Invited Experts Policy:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KTHXHS6PoBFOj4l3GfNymH9ig5UU_R-J -
Draft Invited Experts Agreement:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l2dLrt7E1LRXsc0FAmIRRp5dnOmQmEDN
These are also available on GitHub. See: https://github.com/cabforum/forum/pull/70
The proposed Invited Experts Policy is adapted from the W3C’s Invited Experts framework (https://www.w3.org/invited-experts/) and is intended to provide a path for independent individuals, researchers, and guest speakers—particularly those from academic institutions or without significant corporate affiliation—to participate in CA/B Forum Working Groups without having to become Interested Parties or to execute the full Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy Agreement.
The IPR Subcommittee has completed its initial review of the draft policy and agreement and would now like to receive broader Forum input before advancing this as a FORUM-level ballot. I will also be seeking two Forum Member endorsers for this future FORUM ballot.
Note that the Subcommittee concluded that it was preferable to adopt this as a standalone Forum policy first, and then follow up as part of the Bylaws revisions taking place in a future ballot. In parallel, the IPR Subcommittee is also finalizing a set of updates to the IPR Policy itself, which we hope to circulate shortly.
Finally, we are reviewing a draft Contributor License Agreement (CLA) intended for use in the CA/B Forum’s GitHub repositories. How we proceed with a CLA will depend in part on forthcoming recommendations from the Forum’s Infrastructure Subcommittee on whether GitHub comment threads should be “locked” (restricting comments to those with write access, i.e., official representatives). That decision may influence how we handle contributions and comments from non-members on GitHub going forward.
Please take time to review the Invited-Expert drafts and share any feedback with the list. Your input is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Ben Wilson, on behalf of the IPR Subcommittee