Ned's reading agrees with mine. It must suck to be under contract or NDA to someone who is participating in the IETF and wilfully ignoring the IETF's IPR rules. The first step may be to check with them direct that they are wilfully ignoring those rules - it is possible that they have missed something and will thank you for pointing it out. Both the company concerned and the participating individual may be glad to hear from you. Why might they thank you? Because if the company later tries to enforce a license on their patent and it comes out that they sent people to participate against the IETF's rules, then it is possible that a court might take a dim view of their claim. Because if the IETF later discovers that the individual has participated against the IETF's rules then the IETF might read and apply RFC 6701. Cheers, Adrian PS It is not unheard of for a third party (such as an AD) to discover (through whatever means) the existence of IPR that might be relevant and file a 3rd-party notice accordingly. > -----Original Message----- > From: WGChairs [mailto:wgchairs-bounces@xxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ned Freed > Sent: 28 January 2014 18:32 > To: Mulligan, Geoff > Cc: IETF WG Chairs; ietf@xxxxxxxx Mailing List > Subject: RE: Third party disclosures and NDAs (Re: Problem with new Note Well ) > > > So because I know of IPR that someone else has and is not disclosing and > > because I cannot legally disclose it - I can't continue to participate in the > > discussion doesn't seem right. I'm not the holder of the IPR that isn't being > > disclosed, but I'm penalized. > > As I have pointed out several times now, that's incorrect.