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Forum IPR Subcommittee

Forum IPR Subcommittee Charter

Upon approval of the CAB Forum by ballot, and in accordance with section 5.6 of the CA/Browser Forum Bylaws, the Forum IPR Subcommittee (“FIPR”) is created to perform the activities specified in this Charter, subject to the terms and conditions of the Bylaws, which take precedence over this Charter.

1. Definitions

Definitions found in the Bylaws or in the IPR Policy shall apply to capitalized terms in this Charter.

2. Scope

The primary activity of the FIPR shall be to review and propose revisions to the Forum’s IPR Policy, IPR Policy Agreement, and Exclusion Notice Template (“Deliverables”). Discussion will include:

(a) How to address contributions provided by non-Forum Members (e.g., invited experts, guest speakers, researchers, etc.);

(b) If any clarifications and/or changes are necessary to the IPR Policy in view of recent events; and

(c) A potential contributor license agreement for the Forum’s GitHub repository and policy for contributing to the Forum’s GitHub repository.

The FIPR may perform other activities ancillary to this primary activity. The FIPR will not adopt Final Guidelines or Final Maintenance Guidelines.

3. Chairs and Contacts

The proposer of the ballot adopting this Charter, Ben Wilson, will act as organizer of the FIPR until the first teleconference is held for the FIPR, at which time the FIPR will elect a chair and vice-chair, either by vote or by acclamation of those present.

4. Participation

The FIPR welcomes the participation of any Forum Voting Member interested in this work. Voting Members initially declaring their participation in this Subcommittee are: Amazon, Apple, DigiCert, GoDaddy, Google, HARICA, Let’s Encrypt, Mozilla, and Sectigo.

5. Communication

The FIPR will communicate primarily through listserv-based email and shall conduct periodic calls or face-to-face meetings as needed.

6. End Date

The FIPR will submit its Deliverables to the Forum prior to April 1, 2025, and upon such date the Subcommittee is deemed dissolved.

Latest releases
Server Certificate Requirements
BRs/2.1.2 SC-080 V3: Sunset the use of WHOIS to identify Domain Contacts and relying DCV Methods - Dec 16, 2024

Ballot SC-080 V3: “Sunset the use of WHOIS to identify Domain Contact… (https://github.com/cabforum/servercert/pull/560) Ballot SC-080 V3: “Sunset the use of WHOIS to identify Domain Contacts and relying DCV Methods” (https://github.com/cabforum/servercert/pull/555)

Code Signing Requirements
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

S/MIME Requirements
v1.0.8 - Ballot SMC010 - Dec 23, 2024

This ballot adopts Multi-Perspective Issuance Corroboration (MPIC) for CAs when conducting Email Domain Control Validation (DCV) and Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) checks for S/MIME Certificates. The Ballot adopts the MPIC implementation consistent with the TLS Baseline Requirements. Acknowledging that some S/MIME CAs with no TLS operations may require additional time to deploy MPIC, the Ballot has a Compliance Date of May 15, 2025. Following that date the implementation timeline described in TLS BR section 3.2.2.9 applies. This ballot is proposed by Stephen Davidson (DigiCert) and endorsed by Ashish Dhiman (GlobalSign) and Nicolas Lidzborski (Google).

Network and Certificate System Security Requirements
v2.0 - Ballot NS-003 - Jun 26, 2024

Ballot NS-003: Restructure the NCSSRs in https://github.com/cabforum/netsec/pull/35

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The Certification Authority Browser Forum (CA/Browser Forum) is a voluntary gathering of Certificate Issuers and suppliers of Internet browser software and other applications that use certificates (Certificate Consumers).