Hallo Guus,
A few points:
1. I think people are getting worked about something that is no longer relevant. Use of
the JABBER mark in our community was common over 20 years ago but nowadays developers
aren't asking to use the mark. We changed the name of the technology to XMPP when we
formed the XMPP WG at the IETF in 2002 and subsequently the name of the JSF to the XSF.
Why are we spending cycles on this in 2026?
2. The agreements were extended beyond the trial period but I don't have
documentation of that extension. I don't recall exactly what was happening at JINC at
the time, but we might have been in the midst of a CEO transition. I have looked in my
folders and I don't see anything. If I had it, I would have posted it years ago.
3. If the XSF moves from U.S. domicile to European domicile, I have suggested that we not
attempt to transfer the sublicensing authority to "XSF-EU"; at that point, if
the rare open-source project wants to license the mark, it can do so directly with Cisco.
We set up the sublicensing program only because we foresaw the need for lots of licensed
uses of the mark, and that's no longer the case.
Peter
On 7/15/26 1:18 AM, Guus der Kinderen wrote:
Hi all,
The full Enforcement Agreement is now merged with the website source code. It should
appear there over the next few hours. Peter's scan included Exhibit A, which the
previously published version was missing. Exhibit A is the Jabber Trademark Position
Statement, and having now read the three documents together (with the JTPS, which the
published scan had omitted) I think it clarifies things, though not entirely in a
comfortable direction.
Reading them as a set:
* The License Agreement grants the JSF a perpetual, royalty-free
licence to use the Mark, and §5 expressly says the JSF may not
sublicense.
* The Enforcement Agreement has the JSF administer third-party use of
the Mark per the JTPS guidelines. But §1 frames this as "for the
twelve-month period thereafter" following the Effective Date (the
"Trial Period"), and §3 says the term runs for twelve months. §3
also provides that on termination other than by transfer of the
Mark, JINC "shall again become solely responsible for administration
of the Mark."
* Exhibit A to the Enforcement Agreement (the JTPS) is where the
programme we actually run is described: JABBER in product/company
names requires a licence "available through the Jabber Software
Foundation," applications via the JSF website, and so on. It also
describes itself as proposed guidelines to be refined between JINC
and the JSF.
* The Letter of Intent, the Enforcement Agreement §2, and the JTPS all
contemplate ownership of the Mark transferring to the JSF after 12
months of successful administration, which, as Peter notes, never
happened.
So my reading is that what we call sublicensing is the JTPS-based administration
arrangement, and that arrangement was structured as a twelve-month trial ending either in
transfer of the Mark or in reversion to JINC. Peter has said he doesn't think the
extension beyond the trial period was properly documented, and that there's nothing on
file about Cisco affirming the arrangement in 2008.
Before I take this any further: is there something I'm missing? Specifically:
* Is there any record of the Enforcement Agreement being extended,
renewed, or superseded after May 2004? Peter, you mentioned you'd
need to dig further. Is that worth doing, or are you confident the
safe contains everything?
* Peter - do you recall anything about how the arrangement was treated
after the trial period ended? Was there a decision, or did it simply
continue in practice?
* Peter - I understand you've been in contact with JINC/Cisco counsel
at various points well after 2003. What did that contact cover, and
is any of it in writing? If Cisco's lawyers ever acknowledged the
Foundation's role in administering the Mark, that's arguably the
most relevant thing we have.
To be clear, I'm not proposing the Board decide anything on this now. I'm trying
to establish what we actually know before it comes back to the agenda. It's been
suggested that the practical position may differ from the paperwork, which is plausible:
if Cisco has been aware of the Foundation's licensing activity for two decades and
never objected, that may well matter. Whether an agreement whose term clause says twelve
months survived twenty-two years of both parties acting as if it did is a question about
Colorado contract law. That's one I'd rather we find out than assume.
Kind regards,
Guus
On Fri, Jul 3, 2026 at 1:35 PM Peter Saint-Andre <stpeter(a)stpeter.im
<mailto:stpeter@stpeter.im>> wrote:
The enforcement agreement says that the JSF shall administer use of the
mark consistent with the position statement - this is what in other
places and contexts we have called sublicensing, although that term is
not used in the enforcement agreement. Unfortunately, IIRC the
extension
of that agreement beyond the trial period (i.e., the first 12 months)
might not have been properly documented. Also, the mark itself was
never
transferred to the JSF.
On 7/3/26 5:25 AM, Ralph Meijer wrote:
Aren't these the same documents that are
already linked on the
background page? I think the thing missing is an agreement that
permits
the sublicensing by the JSF/XSF.
On 2 July 2026 18:11:22 CEST, Peter Saint-Andre
<stpeter(a)stpeter.im
<mailto:stpeter@stpeter.im>> wrote:
Attached please find scanned copies of:
- A letter of intent between Jabber Inc. and the Jabber Software
Foundation, dated December 16, 2002
- A trademark licensing agreement between Jabber Inc. and the
Jabber
Software Foundation, dated March 7, 2003
- A trademark enforcement agreement between Jabber Inc. and the
Jabber Software Foundation, dated May 2, 2003
For the avoidance of doubt, I believe that these are the only
documents I have on file (in a locked, fireproof safe at my
house)
related to the trademark licensing agreement.
For example, I
do not
believe that I have any documents on file
related to affirmation
that Cisco Systems Inc. would honor the trademark licensing
agreement upon its acquisition of Jabber Inc. on Halloween,
2008. It
is possible that such documents exist, but I
would need to do
more
digging in order to find them.
I would most appreciate it if someone would be so kind as to
submit
a PR against the XSF website so that these
documents will be
publicly available there.
Peter
On Tue, Jun 30, 2026, at 9:50 AM, Ralph Meijer wrote:
> On 04/06/2026 15.50, Dave Cridland wrote:
>> [..]
>> Very specifically on these, I think it would be useful to
>> classify the IPR and related assets that the existing XSF
has. My
>> non-exhaustive guesswork gives me:
>>
>> [..]
>> * Trademark licences (I think the XSF has a trademark
licence for
>> Jabber, though I can't find it)
>
> This document can be found here <https://xmpp.org/docs/
<https://xmpp.org/docs/>
> Trademark_License_Agreement.pdf
<https://xmpp.org/docs/
<https://xmpp.org/docs/>
> Trademark_License_Agreement.pdf>>,
as linked from <https://
>
xmpp.org/about/xsf/jabber-trademark/background/ <http://
xmpp.org/about/xsf/jabber-trademark/background/> <https://xmpp.org/
<https://xmpp.org/>
>
about/xsf/jabber-trademark/background/>>. Note that this
document
> specifically disallows sublicensing, but
read on below.
>
>> * Trademark sublicensor:
https://xmpp.org/about/xsf/jabber-
<https://xmpp.org/about/xsf/jabber->
>> trademark/
<https://xmpp.org/about/xsf/jabber-trademark/
<https://xmpp.org/about/xsf/jabber-trademark/>>
>
>
> Even though the JabberⓇ Trademark License Agreement clearly
> asserts that there is an agreement between the XSF and Cisco to
> offer a sublicensing program, we do not currently have any
public
> document that explicitly shows this.
I've been working with
Peter
> to assess the relevant documents and
whether we can make them
> publicly available. If so, we will make sure to add them to this
> section of the XSF website.
>
> I will provide an update when I have more to share.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ralph
>