U.K. Comes out for Royalty-Free Standards for Government Procurement

“The U.K. has become the latest country to conclude that for
information and communications technology (ICT) procurement
purposes, “open standards” means “royalty free standards.” While
apparently falling short of a legal requirement, a Cabinet Office
Procurement Policy Note recommends that all departments, agencies,
non-departmental bodies and “any other bodies for which they are
responsible” should specify open standards in their procurement
activities, unless there are “clear business reasons why this is
inappropriate.”

“Under the new Procurement Note, “open standards” are defined as
standards that:

* result from and are maintained through an open, independent
process;
* are approved by a recognised specification or standardisation
organisation, for example W3C or ISO or equivalent. (N.B. The
specification/standardization must be compliant with Regulation 9
of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006. This regulation makes it
clear that technical specifications/standards cannot simply be
national standards but must also include/recognise European
standards);
* are thoroughly documented and publicly available at zero or low
cost;
* have intellectual property made irrevocably available on a
royalty-free basis; and
* as a whole can be implemented and shared under different
development approaches and on a number of platforms.”

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