IPR Policy
Current Version
Intellectual Property Rights Policy
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy v. 1.4
IPR Policy v. 1.4 (pdf)
Effective: June 1, 2026
GitHub Repository Version of IPR Policy
The document above is the authoritative version of the CA/Browser Forum IPR Policy as of the Effective Date.
IPR Policy Agreement
CAB Forum Agreement for IPR Policy v.1.4 (pdf)
CAB Forum Agreement for IPR Policy v.1.4 (enabled for digital signature)
GitHub Repository Version of IPR Policy Agreement
Patent Exclusion Notice Template
Exclusion Notice Template (pdf)
Exclusion Notice Template (pdf, first page fillable)
GitHub Repository Version of Exclusion Notice Template
Related Documents
CAB Forum Invited Experts Policy
CAB Forum Invited Experts Agreement
Explanatory
The CA/Browser Forum’s IPR Policy governs Contributions by members of the Forum during the drafting and adoption process of Normative Requirements by a Working Group. A Contribution is any material “made verbally or in a tangible form of expression (including in electronic media) which is provided by a Participant in the process of developing a Draft Guideline for the purpose of incorporating such material into a Draft Guideline or a Final Guideline or Final Maintenance Guideline.” The term “Draft Guideline” includes ballots that are being considered for adoption by a Working Group as either a “Final Guideline” or a “Final Maintenance Guideline”.
When a ballot to amend an existing Final Guideline is adopted by a Working Group, that amendment is considered a Final Maintenance Guideline, and each of the above guideline documents, as amended, is then considered a “Final Guideline” of the CA/Browser Forum.
Each of the following documents is considered a “Final Guideline”:
Network and Certificate System Security Requirements
Code Signing Baseline Requirements
Prior Versions
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy v. 1.3 (effective from 3 July 2018 to 31 May 2026)
Outdated CAB Forum Agreement for IPR Policy (historical)
CABF-IPR-Policy-v.1.2 (effective from 15 February 2016 to 2 July 2018)
Prior IPR_Policy_V1 (effective from 1-Aug-2012 to 14-Feb-2016)
Additional Information
v3.8 - Aug 5, 2024
What’s Changed CSC-25: Import EV Guidelines to CS Baseline Requirements by @dzacharo in https://github.com/cabforum/code-signing/pull/38 Full Changelog: https://github.com/cabforum/code-signing/compare/v3.7...v3.8
v1.0.14 - Ballot SMC016 - May 5, 2026
This ballot maintains consistency between the S/MIME Baseline Requirements and the TLS Baseline Requirements with changes introduced by Ballots SC096 and SC097. Specifically, this ballot: Creates a carve-out of the logging requirements for DNSSEC specifically, stating these are not in scope. For audit purposes, change management logging is able to confirm if the appropriate controls are in effect or not. Sunsets all remaining use of SHA-1 signatures in Certificates and CRLs. It is noted that most uses of SHA-1 signatures are already deprecated by SC097. With this ballot, all unexpired Subordinate CA Certificates issuing S/MIME containing the SHA-1 signature algorithm must be revoked. This proposal does not prohibit the use of SHA-1 to generate issuerKeyHash or issuerNameHash values as currently required by RFC 5019. Includes minor formatting corrections.