CERN Open Hardware Licence

CERN Open Hardware Licence
Name	CERN Open Hardware Licence
Developer	CERN
Released	2011
Latest release	v2.0 (2019)
License	Open hardware licence
Website	CERN Open Hardware Licence

CERN Open Hardware Licence The CERN Open Hardware Licence is a family of open hardware licences created by CERN to govern sharing of hardware design documentation for collaborative development. It provides standardized terms to permit copying, modification, and distribution of designs while preserving attribution, reciprocal obligations, and patent grants. The Licence is widely cited in discussions involving Open source hardware, Open design, and institutional technology transfer at major research facilities.

Overview

The CERN Open Hardware Licence was drafted at CERN by teams associated with initiatives such as Open Hardware Repository, HTC collaborations and technology transfer offices to address needs highlighted by projects at European Organization for Nuclear Research and partner institutions like Fermilab, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and DESY. It aims to mediate between practices exemplified by Free Software Foundation discussions, Open Source Initiative policymaking, and hardware-oriented movements including Arduino, RepRap, OSHWA, and the Open Compute Project. The Licence's text articulates rights and duties that echo elements of GNU General Public License style reciprocity, while responding to issues in patent licensing observed in cases involving Tesla, Inc., ARM Holdings, and multinational collaborations such as ITER and Human Genome Project consortia.

Versions and Terms

The initial 1.0 release was followed by updates culminating in version 2.0, which clarified definitions relating to patent grants, "Documentation" scope, and compatibility with standards used by European Patent Office applicants. Key terms include grant of permission for "copy, modify, and distribute" alongside requirements for preserving author attribution and making modified Documentation available under the same licence, mirroring viral reciprocity found in licences like the GNU Affero General Public License. The Licence describes obligations for distributors, upstream contributors, and downstream implementers, and interfaces with institutions such as Universities UK, MIT Technology Licensing Office, Imperial College London tech transfer units, and national bodies like UK Intellectual Property Office and United States Patent and Trademark Office. It also sets out handling of trademarks and compatibility with patent policies at organizations including World Intellectual Property Organization and European Commission funded projects under Horizon 2020.

Licensing Compatibility and Legal Issues

Legal scholars and practitioners in offices such as Bird & Bird, Allen & Overy, and academic groups from Harvard Law School and Yale Law School have assessed how the Licence interoperates with other instruments like the Creative Commons suite, Open Database License, and permissive hardware releases used by Raspberry Pi Foundation or Adafruit Industries. Compatibility questions arise when combining CERN-licensed Documentation with designs under licences exemplified by the MIT License, BSD licenses, Apache License 2.0, or copyleft texts such as the GNU General Public License family. Jurisdictional concerns have been raised in litigation contexts involving courts in England and Wales, United States Court of Appeals, and authorities like the European Court of Justice when interpreting patent grant scope and waiver language. The Licence’s treatment of contributor patent licenses echoes debates formerly prominent in cases involving Microsoft Corporation and Oracle Corporation and in policy statements from European Patent Office and United States Supreme Court precedents.

Adoption and Impact

Adopters include academic laboratories at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, and industrial research groups at Siemens, Thales Group, Intel Corporation, and Nokia. The Licence influenced repositories such as the Open Source Hardware Association registers, the Open Hardware Repository, and platforms used by ESA projects, NASA initiatives, and European Southern Observatory collaborations. It has been cited in procurement policies of organizations like UNESCO partner programs and non-profit efforts including Medicines Sans Frontières technology teams. Policy-makers at European Commission units and national research councils have referenced the Licence in drafting open science guidelines tied to FP7 and Horizon Europe funding instruments.

Examples of Projects Using the Licence

Notable projects adopting the Licence include detector electronics modules developed for Large Hadron Collider experiments, control systems from ITER partner labs, low-cost medical device designs promoted by World Health Organization affiliated initiatives, open radio hardware linked to Square Kilometre Array prototyping, and educational platforms similar to Arduino clones by university spinouts. Other examples span contributions from collaborations with CERN spin-offs, prototype instrumentation for European XFEL, and community hardware efforts connected with Maker Faire events and groups like Hackaday.

Criticism and Controversies

Critiques have centered on perceived ambiguity in patent language and enforceability in cross-border disputes, echoing earlier controversies involving Open Source Ecology and licence debates at Free Software Foundation meetings. Some commentators from legal clinics at Columbia Law School and Stanford Law School argued the reciprocal clauses can deter commercial integration by firms such as ARM Holdings or Intel Corporation, while policy analysts at Brookings Institution and RAND Corporation questioned practical adoption in contexts with aggressive patent portfolios like Qualcomm and Broadcom Inc.. Debates have also involved interoperability with Creative Commons-licensed documentation and concerns voiced in community forums run by OSHWA and Hackerspace chapters.

Category:Open hardware