[From http://www.incits.org/archive/2003/in030467/in030467.htm; please use this official/canonical version of the document if possible. Germane to: "Standards Organizations Express Concern About Royalty Fees for ISO Codes."]

• The quoted the web-site distinction between implementation and commercial use was posted only after we Oracle pointed out to ANSI that the ISO site stated simply that "...codes are made available by ISO at no charge."
• I sent the inquiry to ISO on advice of Oracle in-house counsel who pointed out that we needed confirmation from the copyright holder of the rights that they had granted to ANSI; it's not clear, however, that ANSI is required to exercise these rights.

From: Bob Feghali <BFEGHALI@ansi.org>
To: Donald R Deutsch <donald.deutsch@oracle.com>
Cc: Rosemary Maginniss <RMAGINNI@ansi.org>
Subject: RE: Royalties for ISO Codes
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 09:01:33 -0500
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)

Dear Don;

As an answer to your second question below, yes ANSI can grant a license to Oracle for international use under the ISO POCOSA (sales and copyright policy of ISO).  

Bob Feghali
VP of Business Development
& Chief Information Officer
American National Standards Institute
(212) 642-4906
mailto:bfeghali@ansi.org
http://www.standardsmall.com/


-----Original Message-----
From: Chabot Jacques-Olivier [mailto:chabot@iso.org ]
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 4:18 AM
To: Don Deutsch
Cc: Brannon Keith; Karen Higginbottom; Rosemary Maginniss; Bob Feghali; Claude Aberlé; Helberling Gisela
Subject: Re: Royalties for ISO Codes
Importance: High

Dear Mr. Deutsch,

Keith Brannon asked me to reply to your query regarding the use of ISO country codes published in ISO 3166 and the role of ANSI.

First of all ANSI is the ISO Member body for the USA with the responsibility of representing ISO in your country. Moreover ANSI is the official distributor for ISO publications and has full authority to sign copyright agreements on behalf of ISO and consequently to collect the related royalty payments.

We make a distinction between implementation and commercial use and this is made very clear on our Web site http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/index.html where we explain that: "

"The short country names from ISO 3166-1 and the alpha-2 codes are made available by ISO at no charge for internal use and non-commercial purposes. The use of ISO 3166-1 in commercial products may be subject to a licence fee."

Consequently if you load the list of country codes in a commercial product, thus giving an added value to your product, it is normal that ANSI asks you for the payment of a royalty fee. If you choose the other possibility which is to let your customers download the country codes may I suggest that you recommend that they download them from the ISO Web site as this is the only valid source for ISO 3166 country codes.

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you need any additional information.

Best regards,

Jacques-Olivier Chabot
Director,
General Services and Marketing

----- Original Message -----

From:Brannon Keith
To:Don Deutsch
Cc:Jacques-Olivier Chabot
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: Royalties for ISO Codes

Don,

Iam by copy of this asking our head of Sales to advise you as Iam not in the Marketing Dept.
Iam sure he can help you.

Regards

Keith

----- Original Message -----

From:Don Deutsch
To:brannon@iso.ch
Cc:Karen Higginbottom
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 2:28 AM
Subject: Royalties for ISO Codes

Keith,

You may not recall meeting me, but we talked briefly at JTC 1 Plenary and Special Group meetings over the past three years.  Karen Higginbottom suggested that you might be able to help me with a procedural question from my in-house legal counsel. 

ANSI claims that they have been granted authority by ISO to collect royalty payments for commercial use of ISO standard codes for countries and languages (ISO 3166 and 639, respectively).  We produce software that can utilize these codes for ease of interaction with other systems; these codes can be pre-loaded by us, or we can direct the purchasers of our software to download them directly from your (as well as other) web sites.  ANSI claims that in the former case we would owe them a royalty, while in the latter it would be available to our customers without charge. 

Oracle legal has asked me to ask the copyright holder (ISO) the following:

1. What authority have you granted to ANSI?  Have you granted the same or similar authority to other national bodies?  If yes, what is the scope of their authorities (see 2 below)?

2. What rights can ANSI grant to Oracle?   In particular, can we incorporate these codes and distribute our products outside the United States under the license granted by ANSI?

3. Does ISO grant licenses directly for the uses that we intend? If the answer to #2 is that the ANSI rights are limited to the U.S., how would you suggest that we proceed?

Keith, I am hopeful that you can answer these questions.  If not, would you please point me to the right person. 

I thank you in advance for you assistance and hope to see you in Budapest.

Regards...Don