Liaison Policy – ANSI Addendum

Table of contents

  1. General
  2. Notification and Announcement Requirements
    1. ANSI PINS Announcement
    2. ANSI BSR‐8 Call for Comments
  3. OASIS Standard Submission and Balloting requirements
  4. Recirculation and Request for ANS Submission
  5. Balance
  6. Withdrawal of an OASIS-sponsored American National Standard
  7. Maintenance
    1. Periodic Maintenance
    2. Stabilized Maintenance
  8. Patent Notices

General

OASIS Technical Committees considering submitting their Standards for consideration for American National Standard (ANS) status must comply with these requirements in order for their work to be eligible for ANS submission under the Liaison Policy. These requirements ensure that the submission from OASIS is valid under ANSI’s Essential Requirements.

For the purposes of creating American National Standards in OASIS, the Technical Committee will serve as the consensus body.

Any TC engaging in the development of Standards intended for ANS status acknowledges that the International System of Units (SI) is the preferred unit of measurement for ANS created in OASIS.

Within the context of the American National Standards process, any entity that desires voting rights in OASIS without being a member of OASIS must enter into a LOA that binds them to the same terms of participation as is afforded members through the Membership Agreement. All references herein that are relevant to the ANS process that include the term “OASIS Member” and the like, are acknowledged as also applying to those consensus body voters who are not OASIS Members and enters into that LOA.

Notification and Announcement Requirements

ANSI PINS Announcement

Notification of proposed new and revised American National Standards (ANS) activity must be sent by OASIS via the ANSI Project Initiation Notification System (PINS) or equivalent. A PINS may also be submitted, but is not required, for reaffirmations and withdrawals of existing ANS.

This notification will be sent as soon as practicable after a decision to pursue an ANS designation has been made: at the TC Formation stage (TC Process Section 2.2) with the consensus of the convenors or anytime in the draft process with a Special Majority vote approval from the TC. The PINS Announcement for an existing OASIS Standard will be sent as part of the Liaison Policy Section 3.b. affirmative Submission Request Response.

As applicable, the 30 day PINS comment period must conclude prior to submission of the BSR-8 form (or equivalent) Call for Comments. If OASIS receives written comment in response to the PINS and said comments assert the proposed standard duplicates or conflicts with an existing ANS or candidate ANS previously published in Standards Action, then OASIS will make a good-faith effort to convene a deliberation within 90 days between the commenter and TC to determine if the proposed work is necessary. The results of this deliberation(s), or report of the reasonable efforts to convene the deliberation, must be conveyed in writing (ideally as a joint submission) to the ANSI Board of Standards Review for consideration, in accordance with the current requirements set-forth in the ANSI Essential Requirements, should the related standard be submitted to ANSI for approval as an ANS.

ANSI BSR‐8 Call for Comments

A Call for Comments via BSR-8 generally will be initiated by OASIS during a Public Review of a Committee Draft (TC Process Section 3.2) and may be initiated any time the TC seeks comments. OASIS will initiate a Call for Comments via BSR-8 for an existing or proposed OASIS Standard at the conclusion of the PINS Comment Period and with the request of the TC.

Proposals to create a new ANS, revise, reaffirm, or withdraw approval of existing OASIS ANS shall be transmitted to ANSI using the BSR-8 form, or its equivalent, for listing in Standards Action in order to provide an opportunity for public comment.

If it is the case, a statement of intent to submit the standard for consideration as an ISO or ISO/IEC JTC-1 standard shall be included in the scope summary that is published in Standards Action.

The comment period shall be one of the following:

  1. A minimum of thirty days if the full text of the revision(s) is 5 pages or less and can be published in Standards Action;
  2. A minimum of forty-five days if the document is available in an electronic format, deliverable within one day of a request, and the source (e.g., URL) from which it can be obtained by the public is provided to ANSI for announcement in Standards Action.

Any substantive change subsequently made in a proposed American National Standard requires listing of the change in Standards Action.

All commenters, including public review and voters, must provide their feedback through the OASIS Comment facility and other publicly visible resources or give authorization for their comments to be forwarded to those facilities.

An attempt to resolve all timely comments received shall be made and all commenters shall be advised in writing of the disposition of their comments and the reasons therefor.

OASIS Standard Submission and Balloting requirements

The Special Majority Vote to approve a Candidate OASIS Standard (TC Process Section 3.4.1) must declare the TC’s intention to seek ANS submission.

The Member ballot for OASIS Standard Approval (TC Process 3.4.3) must make clear the TC’s intention to seek ANS submission if approved.

Recirculation and Request for ANS Submission

OASIS shall record and consider all negative votes accompanied by any comments that are related to the proposal under consideration. This includes negative votes accompanied by comments concerning potential conflict or duplication of the draft standard with an existing American National Standard and negative votes accompanied by comments of a procedural or philosophical nature. These types of comments shall be considered whether or not they provide alternative language or a specific remedy to the negative vote.

Each unresolved objection and attempt at resolution, and any substantive change made in a proposed American National Standard shall be reported to the consensus body in order to afford all members of the consensus body an opportunity to respond, reaffirm, or change their vote.

In addition, all unresolved public commenters and unresolved negative voters shall be advised in writing of their right to file a procedural appeal with OASIS and of the process to file an appeal.

Following the recirculation and consideration of comments the TC must vote to initiate a Special Majority Ballot (TC Process section 1.41) to approve submission of the approved OASIS Standard to ANSI for ANS consideration.

Balance

The standards development process should have a balance of interests. Participants from diverse interest categories shall be sought with the objective of achieving balance.

At a minimum, whenever a PINS Notice is initiated, OASIS will assess the TC balance and report the results to the TC mail list along with a report of efforts to eliminate any imbalance in accordance with ANSI Essential Requirements and our goal of inclusivity. Unless warranted by the unique market a TC serves, the balance will be assessed using the following interest categories:

  1. Producer: Where the participant’s standards activity in question deals with technologies intended for sale or distribution.
  2. User-commercial: Where the participant’s standards activity in question deals with technologies intended for internal implementation or managing, as a non-producer, the implementation for others.
  3. User-government: Where the participant’s standards activity in question is intended to result in a standard that may become the basis for government agency procurement or policy, an appropriate user participant is the representative of that government agency.
  4. General interest: Where the participant’s standards activity doesn’t fit any other category.

Withdrawal of an OASIS-sponsored American National Standard

OASIS reserves the right to withdraw an ANS or abandon the processing of a proposed or revised ANS or portion thereof without a vote of a consensus body.

Maintenance

OASIS ANS must be maintained in one of two processes:

Periodic Maintenance

Periodic maintenance is defined as the maintenance of a standard by review of the entire document and action to revise or reaffirm it on a schedule not to exceed five years from the date of its approval as an American National Standard.

In the event that a PINS or BSR-8/108 has not been submitted for an American National Standard within five years after its approval, OASIS may request an extension of time to reaffirm or revise the standard, or shall withdraw the standard. The request for an extension of time shall be submitted to ANSI within thirty days following five years after the approval date of the American National Standard. Requests for extensions shall provide the program and schedule of work that will lead to revision, reaffirmation, or withdrawal.

The extension may be granted by the ExSC or its designee.

No extension of time beyond ten years from the date of approval shall be granted for action on a standard. In no case shall a standard maintained under the periodic maintenance option retain its status as a current ANS beyond ten years from the date of approval. Such approval automatically expires on the tenth anniversary date of approval as an American National Standard.

Stabilized Maintenance

A standard that is maintained under the stabilized maintenance option shall satisfy the following eligibility criteria:

  1. the standard addresses mature technology or practices, and as a result, is not likely to require revision; and
  2. the standard is other than safety or health related; and
  3. the standard currently holds the status of American National Standard and has been reaffirmed at least once; and
  4. at least ten years have passed since the approval or last revision of the standard as an ANS; and
  5. the standard is required for use in connection with existing implementations or for reference purposes.

An ANS maintained under the stabilized maintenance option is not required to be revised or reaffirmed on a routine 5-year cycle; however, it shall be subject to review of such status by OASIS on a 10-year cycle. If it is determined in connection with this review that the standard shall continue to be maintained under the stabilized maintenance option and as such does not require revision or withdrawal, then this shall be communicated to ANSI by OASIS and a related announcement shall be made in Standards Action. BSR-8 Notification to ANSI shall be submitted if the standard will continue to be maintained under the stabilized maintenance option or will be withdrawn, or a PINS will be filed if the standard will be revised.

Any materially affected and interested party may file a recommendation with OASIS that a standard maintained under the stabilized maintenance option requires revision or should be withdrawn. A recommendation should include rationale to begin a revision, and shall not be dismissed due to the fact that it does not necessarily suggest a specific revision. The active TC, or in its absence OASIS, must consider the recommendation and respond to the submitter within 60 days of receipt with of the decision relative to the maintenance status of the standard.

An ANS that is maintained under the stabilized maintenance option shall include a clear statement of the intent to consider requests for change and information on the submittal of such requests.

The decision to maintain an ANS under the stabilized maintenance option and the process by which it is maintained shall be subject to appeal to OASIS. A subsequent appeal to ANSI may be made to the ANSI Executive Standards Council based on a claim of procedural non-compliance.

Patent Notices

Any Notice of Disclosed Claims received by OASIS under the IPR Policy regarding an ANS developed in OASIS will be submitted to ANSI, along with information concerning the applicable IPR Mode specified by the Technical Committee developing that ANS, as soon as practicable after receipt at OASIS.

Neither OASIS nor ANSI is responsible for identifying patents for which a license may be required by an American National Standard or for conducting inquiries into the legal validity or scope of those patents that are brought to their attention.

Approved: Thu, 2013-02-21
Effective: Thu, 2013-02-21