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Network Working Group G. McAnally Request for Comments: 1988 D. Gilbert Category: Informational J. Flick

                                               Hewlett Packard Company
                                                           August 1996

  Conditional Grant of Rights to Specific Hewlett-Packard Patents
     In Conjunction With the Internet Engineering Task Force's
           Internet-Standard Network Management Framework

Status of This Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
 does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
 this memo is unlimited.

Note:

 This document is NOT a standard.  It is an announcement to interested
 parties of a conditional grant by the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) of
 certain rights to use autotopology network management technology
 covered by specific HP patents in conjunction with the Internet
 Engineering Task Force's (IETF's) Internet-standard network
 management framework.

Purpose

 This grant is made to help facilitate inclusion of certain patented
 search address technology covering network device mapping in IETF
 standards-track Management Information Base (MIB) modules.  HP is
 offering this search address technology to the IETF as a technique
 for mapping network devices.  It should be noted that the
 confirmatory license mentioned is optional, since the grant of rights
 is automatic.

A Grant of Rights to Hewlett-Packard US Patents 5,293,635 and 5,421,024

 HP hereby covenants that it will not assert any claims in US Patents
 5,293,635, 5,421,024, any continuations, divisions, or
 continuations-in-part of either, or any non-US counterparts of any of
 the foregoing against any party that makes, uses, sells, imports, or
 offers for sale, an implementation of an IETF standards-track MIB
 module that includes HP's contributed search address technology, or
 any derivative of that contribution, provided that the MIB module is
 employed to implement the Internet-standard network management
 framework.  Such grant of rights is limited in that it does not
 include a right to incorporate such HP search address technology into

McAnally, Gilbert & Flick Informational [Page 1]  RFC 1988 Search Address Patent Use August 1996

 proprietary MIB modules.

 This grant of rights will permanently terminate with respect to any
 party (and to any subsidiary of a party) that asserts a patent it
 owns or controls, either directly or indirectly, against HP or any of
 its subsidiaries for implementation of, or operation of any system
 utilizing, search address technology.  The termination of rights will
 occur as of the date the patent is asserted against HP.

 A written confirmation of this grant, and/or a license under any
 other HP patent under HP's then-current terms, conditions, and
 royalty rates, can be obtained by sending a request to:

         Patent Counsel
         Hewlett-Packard Company
         3000 Hanover Street
         Palo Alto, CA 94304
         USA

Security Considerations

 Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

Authors' Addresses

 Gary McAnally
 Hewlett-Packard Company
 8000 Foothills Blvd.
 Roseville, CA 95747
 USA

 Douglas Gilbert
 Hewlett-Packard Company
 3000 Hanover Street
 Palo Alto, CA 94304
 USA

 John Flick
 Hewlett-Packard Company
 8000 Foothills Blvd. M.S. 5556
 Roseville, CA 95747-5556
 USA

 Phone: (916) 785-4018
 EMail: johnf@hprnd.rose.hp.com

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