“I draw your attention to your obligations under the 3GPP Partner Organizations’ IPR policies. Every Individual Member organization is obliged to declare to the Partner Organization or Organizations of which it is a member any IPR owned by the Individual Member or any other organization which is or is likely to become essential to the work of 3GPP.

Delegates are asked to take note that they are thereby invited:

• to investigate whether their organization or any other organization owns IPRs which are, or are likely to become Essential in respect of the work of 3GPP.
• to notify their respective Organizational Partners of all potential IPRs, e.g., for ETSI, by means of the IPR Information Statement and the Licensing declaration forms"

“I also draw your attention to the fact that 3GPP activities are subject to all applicable antitrust and competition laws and that compliance with said laws is therefore required of any participant of this TSG/WG meeting including the Chairman and Vice Chairman. In case of question I recommend that you contact your legal counsel.

The leadership shall conduct the present meeting with impartiality and in the interests of 3GPP.

Furthermore, I would like to remind you that timely submission of work items in advance of TSG/WG meetings is important to allow for full and fair consideration of such matters.”

1.         Public Information is Not Subject to EAR

3GPP is an open platform where all contributions (including technology protected or not by patent) made by the different Individual Members under the membership of each respective Organizational Partner are publicly available. Indeed, contributions by all and any Individual Members are uploaded to a public file server when received and then the documents are effectively in the public domain.

In addition, since membership of email distribution lists is open to all, documents and emails distributed by that means are considered to be publicly available.

As a result, information contained in 3GPP contributions, documents, and emails distributed at 3GPP meetings or by 3GPP email distribution lists, because it is made available to the public without restrictions upon its further dissemination, is not subject to the export restrictions of the EAR.

Meeting minutes are maintained for 3GPP meetings. Such meeting minutes for 3GPP meetings are made available to the public without restrictions upon its further dissemination. As a result, information, including conveyed orally, contained in 3GPP meetings is not subject to the export restriction of the EAR.

2.         Non-Public Information

Non-public information refers to the information not contained or not intended to be contained in 3GPP contributions, documents or emails. Such non-public information may be disclosed during informal meetings, exchanges, discussions or any form of other communication outside the 3GPP meetings and email distribution lists.

For the duration of the Temporary General License (TGL) issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce on May 20, 2019, there are no restrictions on the release of non-public information to companies added to the Entity List on May 16, 2019, to the extent that information is necessary to maintain, service, or support existing handsets, networks or equipment, or "as necessary for development of 5G standards."

3.         Other Information

Certain encryption software controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), even if publicly available, may still be subject to US export controls other than the EAR.

4.         Conduct of Meetings

Until further notice, the situation should be considered as "business as usual" during all the meetings called by 3GPP.

5.         Responsibility of Individual Members

It should be remembered that contributions, meetings, exchanges, discussions or any form of other communication in or outside the 3GPP meetings are of the accountability, integrity and the responsibility of each Individual Member. In addition, Individual Members remain responsible for ensuring that none of their technical contributions include classified encryption software or other information that is subject to US export control under the ITAR or other applicable US export control regulations.

Individual Members with questions regarding the impact of laws and regulations on their participation in 3GPP should contact their companies' legal counsels.