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Standards and guidelines disclaimer

GS1 seeks to minimise barriers to the adoption of its standards and guidelines by making the intellectual property required to implement them available, to the greatest extent possible, on a royalty-free basis, or when necessary, under a RAND licence. Such royalty-free and RAND licences are provided pursuant to the GS1 IP Policy (available here: https://www.gs1.org/standards/ip), which governs the work of work group participants who contribute to drafting standards and guidelines, including this document. In addition to licences, the GS1 IP Policy provides various benefits and obligations that apply to all implementers of GS1 standards and guidelines, and all implementations of GS1 standards are subject to those terms.

Nevertheless, please note the possibility that an implementation of one or more features of this standard or guideline may be the subject of a patent or other intellectual property right that is not covered by the licences granted pursuant to the IP Policy. In addition, the licences granted under the IP Policy do not include the IP rights or claims of third parties who were not participants in the corresponding standard development work group.

Accordingly, GS1 recommends that any person or organisation developing an implementation of this standard or guideline should determine whether any patents or other intellectual property may encompass such implementation, and whether a licence under a patent or other IP right is needed. The implementer should determine the potential need for licensing in view of the details of the specific implementation being designed in consultation with that party's patent counsel.

The official versions of all GS1 standards and guidelines are provided as PDF files on GS1's online reference directory (https://ref.gs1.org) (the "GS1 Reference"). Any other representations of standards or guidelines in any other format (e.g., web pages) are provided for convenience and descriptive purposes only, and in the event of a conflict, the GS1 Reference document shall govern.

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS, OR ANY WARRANTY OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THIS DOCUMENT. GS1 disclaims all liability for any damages arising from any use or misuse of this document, whether special, indirect, consequential, or compensatory damages, and including liability for infringement of any intellectual property rights, relating to use of information in or reliance upon this document.

GS1 makes no commitment to update the information contained herein, and retains the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice. GS1® and the GS1 logo are registered trademarks of GS1 AISBL.