Ten Years After: CIP4 and the Creation of JDF

Not all challenges to CIP4's growth were external. A significant issue regarding protecting JDF from patents (that would prevent openness) was coming to a head. In 2003 it became clear that CIP4 members had to come to an agreement on how intellectual property would be both protected and shared. At the time, controversial patent cases had caused ISO and other standards bodies to reconsider their IP policies. No international standards organization had been able to reach an agreement on IP policy that CIP4 could simply copy. "I hadn't expected to spend my time as head of CIP4 discussing law with lawyers," said Martin Bailey. "The legal wrangling in 2004 was very frustrating, and at one point, I didn't think that we could get past the problem." In early 2005 CIP4 members did come to agreement on an IP policy that all members were required to sign ... an accomplishment that was even reported in European legal periodicals.