This Policy governs the ownership, licensing, and use of intellectual property contributed to or arising from the activities of AgenticAdvertising.Org (the "Foundation"). The Foundation exists, among other purposes, to develop, maintain, and promote open, interoperable, and widely adopted advertising standards such as the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP).
This Policy ensures that AdCP:
- Enables all participants in the advertising ecosystem to implement AdCP under an open standard
- Avoids proprietary lock-in
- Ensures flexibility for AI-powered automation and evolving workflows
- Protects the Foundation's name, specifications, and community processes
By making a Contribution, each Contributor agrees that such Contribution is made under this Policy and that the licenses and other rights set forth herein apply to that Contribution.
Each Contributor grants the Foundation a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, modify, prepare derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display any Contribution submitted by such Contributor to the Foundation.
Draft specifications, final specifications, and other documentation and collaborative outputs authored by the Foundation or developed under Foundation auspices (collectively, "Collective Works") shall be solely owned by the Foundation, and to the extent any Contributor obtains any right, title or interest in or to any Collective Works, it hereby assigns such right, title and interest to the Foundation.
Contributors retain ownership of their underlying Contributions but license them to the Foundation as set forth herein.
Software Licensing: Collective Works released by the Foundation constituting software shall be licensed by the Foundation under the Apache 2.0 License, unless a Working Group explicitly approves an alternative open-source license.
Documentation Licensing: Collective Works released by the Foundation constituting documentation (e.g., protocol definitions, developer guides) shall be released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY-4.0), unless a Working Group explicitly approves an alternative open license.
Each Contributor grants the Foundation a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), royalty-free license under its Necessary Claims (whether or not disclosed as set forth below) to make, use, sell, offer to sell and import compliant implementations of any Final Specification.
Members are obligated to disclose patents or published applications containing Necessary Claims of which they have actual knowledge during the development of a Draft Specification.
The Foundation shall own all rights in the "AdCP" name, logos, certification marks, and related brand identifiers (collectively, the "Foundation Marks"). Except as expressly permitted by the Foundation, no license or right to use the Foundation Marks is granted by implication, estoppel, or otherwise.
Certification Requirements: Use of "AdCP-Compliant" or similar designations requires successful completion of the Foundation's certification or conformance program and adherence to the rules of the applicable certification or conformance program.
Attribution: Representations that any implementations are "AdCP-Compliant" or similar must clearly indicate that the representations are made by the provider of such implementation and not by the Foundation, if such is the case.
Prohibited Use: Unauthorized, misleading or disparaging use of any Foundation Marks is prohibited.
Each Contributor represents and warrants that it owns and/or otherwise has sufficient rights and authority to grant the licenses and other rights as set forth herein.
Except as set forth herein, all Contributions are provided "AS IS" without warranties of any kind, including merchantability, non-infringement, or fitness for a particular purpose.
This Policy shall be governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, with exclusive jurisdiction for disputes in the courts of Delaware.
Contribution: Any invention or original work of authorship (text, proposals, source code, or other materials) submitted to the Foundation.
Contributor: Any individual or entity (whether or not a Member) that makes a Contribution to the Foundation through any Foundation-designated channel, including Foundation-managed repositories, issue trackers, mailing lists or Working Group meetings.
Draft Specification: A work-in-progress technical specification for AdCP under Foundation review.
Final Specification: A technical specification for AdCP formally adopted by the Foundation for public use.
Member: An entity admitted to the Foundation pursuant to the Foundation's Membership Agreement.
Necessary Claims: Patent claims necessarily infringed by implementing required elements of a Final Specification.
Working Group: A Foundation-designated body, established pursuant to the Foundation's governance documents, that is responsible for developing, reviewing, releasing and maintaining Draft Specifications, Final Specifications and other Collective Works for AdCP.