Overview

IP Guidelines

Confidentiality

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Version: 1.0.1
Last Revised: October 2021 (non-substantive copy editing)

Overview

This documentation covers guidelines related to intellectual property in the context of the NSPA Data Standard Initiative will not be treated as confidential. The data standards initiative is, by design, collaborative and intended to provide a public resource. So, please do not make any contributions you do not wish disclosed to Initiative participants or the public.That said, sharing information more broadly than the Initiative participants will typically follow the Chatham House Rule. In brief, this means that comments and contributions may be shared, but the person or organization making the comment will not be revealed. For example, a pointed comment might be shared broadly as, “A scholarship listing service vendor raised an objection to using the proposed data structure for the following reasons…” or similarStandards Initiative. By participating in the NSPA Data Standards Initiative, contributors acknowledge these intellectual property guidelines and agree to comply with these terms.

IP Guidelines

General

The mission of the NSPA is to advance the collective impact of scholarship providers and the scholarships they award. As part of its ongoing work in advancing collective impact, the NSPA has created a Data Standards Initiative, with the intent to simplify life for scholarship providers and their technology partners, to support reporting and research, and to improve the scholarship search and application process for the students our membership ultimately serves.

Copyright

The NSPA Data Standard Standards Initiative follows common (and common-sense) practices regarding copyrights for a standards-development group. Contributions made in the context of the Initiative initiative are irrevocably licensed to the NSPA or its designated copyright owner:

• To make any contribution available to other contributors and the general public for the purpose of considering its inclusion in a standard.

• To distribute any eventual standard with the contribution included, in whole or in part.

• To disseminate contributions via technical or nontechnical documentation, white papers, blog posts, or other publications, in whole or in part.

The NSPA or its designated copyright owner will own the copyright of the final standards and publications into which contributions are incorporated.

SCRAP FROM ED-FI ALLIANCE.

This Ed-Fi Community’s Intellectual Property Disclosure Policy (“Policy”) applies to each participant and community member (“Member”) of an Ed-Fi Alliance-sponsored community work group or advisory group (collectively, “Ed-Fi Community”) affiliated with the Ed-Fi Alliance, LLC, (“Alliance”), a Texas limited liability company exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The Alliance provides a free K-12 education Data Standard to school districts and vendors (collectively, “Adopters”), and provides accompanying tools and materials through a royalty-free license.

The goals of the Ed-Fi Community include facilitating the adoption, implementation and use of the Ed-Fi Data Standard and other Ed-Fi tools to improve the functionality and interoperability of K-12 education data (the “Ed-Fi Mission”). The purpose of this Policy is to outline the expectations regarding disclosure of Intellectual Property (defined below) by members of the Ed-Fi Community.

Each Member is encouraged to share with the Ed-Fi Community Intellectual Property that furthers the Ed-Fi Mission, subject to the terms below. A Member shall only share Intellectual Property which is owned by the Member, or which Member has a license or other permission or authority to share with the Alliance and Ed-Fi Community.

“Intellectual Property” means any ideas, information, concepts, notes, designs, specifications, technical information, processes, methods, reports, software, flowcharts, systems or improvements, enhancements or modifications, assessments or evaluations, copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, uniform resource locators, trade dress, brand features, know-how, moral rights, contract rights and other proprietary rights of any type under the laws of any applicable government authority.

For any Intellectual Property disclosed by the Member through the Member’s participation in the Ed-Fi Community, the Member shall allow the Alliance to share and distribute said Intellectual Property by the mechanism identified by the charter of the applicable Ed-Fi Community work group (which shall be either (a) granting the Alliance a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, publish, display, create further derivative works and sublicense to Alliance’s Adopters such Intellectual Property (which the Alliance shall sublicense); or (b) agreeing that the Alliance shall make such Intellectual Property available to the Ed-Fi Community via the Apache 2.0 license.)

If a Member wishes to share with the Ed-Fi Community Intellectual Property not subject to the terms above, the Member shall first contact the Alliance to discuss the terms under which the Intellectual Property will be licensed to or shared with the Alliance and/or the Ed-Fi Community.

By participating in the Ed-Fi Community, the Member acknowledges receipt of this Policy and compliance with its terms.

Confidentiality

Contributions, whether written or verbal, made in the context of the NSPA Data Standards Initiative will not be treated as confidential. The data standards initiative is, by design, collaborative and intended to provide a public resource. So, please do not make any contributions you do not wish disclosed to Initiative participants or the public.

That said, the sharing of information more broadly than the Initiative participants will typically follow the Chatham House Rule. In brief, this means that comments and contributions may be shared, but the person or organization making the comment will not be revealed. For example, a pointed comment might be shared broadly as, “A scholarship listing service vendor raised an objection to using the proposed data structure for the following reasons…” or similar.