The Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation Incubator

Intellectual property clearance

One of the Incubator's roles is to ensure that proper attention is paid to intellectual property. From time to time, an external codebase is brought into the ASF that is not a separate incubating project but still represents a substantial contribution that was not developed within the ASF's source control system and on our public mailing lists. This is a short form of the Incubation checklist, designed to allow code to be imported with alacrity while still providing for oversight.

This form is not for new projects.

This is for projects and PMCs that have already been created and are receiving a code donation into an existing codebase. Any code that was developed outside of the ASF SVN repository and our public mailing lists must be processed like this, even if the external developer is already an ASF committer.

Incubating projects should follow the procedure described in the incubator mentor guide and report status via STATUS tracking.

The intent is to simply help to ensure, and record, that due diligence (Software Grant, CLA, Corp CLA, license and dependencies) has been paid to the incoming code, so that it can be merged into an existing project/module. These legal documents are available on the ASF Licenses page.

The receiving PMC is responsible for doing the work. The Incubator is simply the repository of the needed information. Once a PMC directly checks-in a filled-out short form, the Incubator PMC will need to approve the paper work after which point the receiving PMC is free to import the code. Note that only lazy consensus is required. The IP clearance template contains more details of this process.

For new IP clearance forms, start with our XML IP clearance template and follow its instructions. Here is the more readable HTML version.

Clearance document Receiving PMC Date recorded
Apache Arrow DataFusion Comet Apache Arrow 2024-02-06
Apache Arrow Flight SQL ODBC Apache Arrow 2023-12-14
Apache Kyuubi Pyhive Apache Kyuubi 2023-10-17
Apache Pekko HTTP CORS Apache Pekko 2023-07-19
Apache Kylin New Modeling System Apache Kylin 2023-03-01
Apache Arrow DataFusion Substrait Apache Arrow 2023-01-05
Apache Arrow Rust Object Store Apache Arrow 2022-07-22
Apache Arrow Flight SQL JDBC Driver Apache Arrow 2022-06-28
Apache IoTDB UDF Library Apache IoTDB 2021-12-29
Apache Arrow Julia Library (2nd try) Apache Arrow 2021-12-04
Apache Daffodil VSCode Debugger Apache Daffodil 2021-09-17
Maven daemon Apache Maven 2021-09-03
AsterixDB JDBC Driver Apache AsterixDB 2021-07-27
CloudStack Terraform Provider Apache CloudStack 2021-07-20
CloudStack Go SDK Apache CloudStack 2021-07-20
Apache Avro Rust Library Apache Avro 2021-05-24
Apache Tika tika-helm Apache Tika 2021-04-13
Apache Arrow Rust Ballista Apache Arrow 2021-04-02
Apache Dubbo-go pixiu Apache Dubbo 2021-03-19
OpenWhisk VSCode Extension Apache OpenWhisk 2020-12-28
OpenWhisk Intellij Plugin Apache OpenWhisk 2020-12-28
Apache APISIX ingress controller Apache APISIX 2020-11-22
Apache Arrow Julia Library Apache Arrow 2020-11-04
Apache TinkerPop - gremlint Apache TinkerPop 2020-09-15
Apache Casssandra - Harry Apache Cassandra - Harry 2020-09-05
Apache MXNet MShadow Apache MXNet 2020-08-05
Apache Dubbo Getty Apache Dubbo 2020-07-24
ShardingSphere ElasticJob Apache ShardingSphere 2020-05-30
OpenWhisk wskdebug Apache OpenWhisk 2020-02-20
Maven Wrapper Apache Maven 2020-02-09
Felix Atomos Apache Felix 2020-02-07
Weex UI Apache Weex (Incubating) 2019-11-06
oas validator Apache ServiceComb 2019-10-
DukeScript presenters Apache NetBeans 2019-10-01
Weex Loader Apache Weex (Incubating) 2019-09-30
Weex CLI (i.e. Weex Toolkit) Apache Weex (Incubating) 2019-09-27
Airflow on K8s Operator Apache Airflow 2019-09-26
Pulsar Manager Apache Pulsar 2019-09-09
Milagro Decentralized Trust Authority Apache Milagro 2019-08-27
Celix websocket pubsub admin Apache Celix 2019-08-19
Beam ZetaSQL Translator Apache Beam 2019-08-13
Celix TCP pubsub admin Apache Celix 2019-07-24
Apache Dubbo go-hessian2 Apache Dubbo 2019-07-18
Celix HTTP admin Apache Celix 2019-07-11
Apache ServiceComb Mesher Apache ServiceComb 2019-07-10
Apache ServiceComb Toolkit Apache ServiceComb 2019-06-18
Apache SkyWalking RocketBot UI Apache SkyWalking 2019-04-25
Apache Sling Journal-based Content Distribution Apache Sling 2019-04-02
Apache Arrow Rust DataFusion Apache Arrow 2019-01-31
Apache Arrow Parquet Rust Library Apache Arrow 2018-12-13
Apache OpenWhisk Composer Python Apache OpenWhisk (Incubator) 2018-11-26
Apache Arrow Parquet Ruby Library Apache Arrow 2018-10-25
Apache Arrow C# Library Apache Arrow 2018-10-21
Apache Beam Euphoria API Apache Beam 2018-10-10
Apache OpenWhisk Composer Apache OpenWhisk (Incubator) 2018-10-09
Apache Beam Dataflow Java Worker Apache Beam 2018-10-03
Mojohaus Maven Utilities for Apache NetBeans Apache NetBeans 2018-10-02
Arrow Parquet GLib Bindings Apache Arrow 2018-09-28
Arrow Gandiva Apache Arrow 2018-09-21
Brooklyn UI in Angular/JS Apache Brooklyn 2018-07-20
Apache Directory SCIMple Apache Directory 2018-07-18
Apache Beam Go SDK Apache Beam 2018-05-29
Apache Arrow Ruby Library Apache Arrow 2018-05-20
Dubbox documentation Apache Dubbo (incubating) 2018-05-15
Apache Felix System Readiness Framework Apache Felix 2018-05-03
Apache Felix Logback integration with OSGi Log 1.4 Apache Felix 2018-05-03
Fluo contributions from Astralway Apache Fluo 2018-04-23
Fineract CN Fineract CN 2018-04-09
Python PhoenixDB Apache Phoenix 2018-03-19
Arrow Go Library Apache Arrow 2018-03-10
Genetic Algorithms Grid Apache Ignite 2018-02-22
DeltaSpike Interdyn Apache DeltaSpike 2018-02-13
RocketMQ CPP SDK Apache RocketMQ 2018-01-12
Apache Felix Bundle Archive File Install Extension Apache Felix 2017-12-12
Jackabit Filevault Package Maven Plugin Apache Jackrabbit 2017-09-12
JBig2 ImageIO Plugin Apache PDFBox 2017-08-28
Apache Arrow Plasma Object Store Apache Arrow 2017-07-27
Apache Calcite Avatica Go Client Apache Calcite 2017-07-27
Apache Brooklyn / Container Service Apache Brooklyn 2017-06-08
Apache Ignite / Persistent Store Apache Ignite 2017-05-12
Apache Ratis Apache Ratis (Incubator) 2017-01-31
Apache Celix / Publish Subscribe Apache Celix 2017-01-27
Cassandra dtest / Distributed Testing Suite Apache Cassandra 2017-01-04
Maven Aether / Artifact Resolver Apache Maven 2016-10-01
Storm JMS Integration Apache Storm 2016-09-29
Storm SQE Apache Storm 2016-09-21
Sling Dynamic Includes Apache Sling 2016-03-30
Brooklyn CLI Apache Brooklyn 2016-02-26
Apache Slider "KOYA" - Kafka on YARN App-Package Apache Slider (Incubator) 2016-01-19
JMeter Dashboard / Report Apache JMeter 2015-12-03
Sling Pipes Apache Sling 2015-12-01
Alibaba JStorm Apache Storm 2015-10-22
POI Visio / XDGF Apache POI 2015-09-20
Apache Aurora Twitter Commons Java Library Apache Aurora 2015-08-10
Apache ORC C++ module Apache ORC 2015-07-15
Apache httpd mod_h2 module Apache HTTP Server 2015-06-30
Sling HApi Tools Apache Sling 2015-06-05
Myriad Apache Myriad (Incubator) 2015-06-04
Apache Storm Azure Eventhubs Integration Apache Storm 2015-04-20
Flex Documentation Apache Flex 2015-04-16
AWS EC2 API wrapper to CloudStack API Apache CloudStack 2015-04-13
Google GCE API wrapper to CloudStack API Apache CloudStack 2015-04-13
CouchDB Mango Apache CouchDB 2015-01-26
Fortress Apache Fortress 2014-11-25
HTrace Apache HTrace 2014-11-11
Sightly and XSS modules for Sling Apache Sling 2014-11-03
Sling Resource Editor Apache Sling 2014-10-13
FlatSpark Apache Flex 2014-09-26
Radii8 Apache Flex 2014-08-20
Quest Data Connector for Sqoop Apache Sqoop 2014-08-12
Commons RDF Apache Commons 2014-07-21
BigCouch Update BigCouch Update 2014-07-17
Sling Query Sling Query 2014-07-17
Brooklyn CAMP Server Apache Incubator - Apache Brooklyn Podling 2014-07-10
HornetQ HornetQ 2014-07-10
We-Amp Ats_speed: PageSpeed optimization plugin for Apache Traffic Server Apache Traffic Server 2014-07-04
Adobe Developer Connection, PMD, FDB, Squiggly, Tour de Flex, etc for Apache Flex Apache Flex 2014-04-18
Adobe BlazeDS for Apache Flex Apache Flex 2014-04-18
Hadoop RDF Tools for Jena Apache Jena 2014-04-01
PojoSR for Felix Apache Felix 2014-03-05
Apache Phoenix Apache Phoenix 2014-02-06
Celix shared memory RSA Apache Celix (incubating) 2013-12-10
Sling Replication Apache Sling 2013-11-27
UIMA DUCC Apache UIMA 2013-11-21
RDP Client for CloudStack Apache CloudStack 2013-11-04
Contrail Plugin for CloudStack Apache CloudStack 2013-10-04
Wicket Free Guide Apache Wicket 2013-08-18
jackrabbit-filevault Apache Jackrabbit 2013-07-08
CouchDB BigCouch Apache CouchDB 2013-05-30
WS-Eventing Service for CXF Apache CXF 2013-05-28
XKMS Service for CXF Apache CXF 2013-05-17
Korean Analyzer Apache Lucene 2013-05-10
LevenshteinAutomaton/MDAG Apache Lucene WIP
CloudStack Marvin Test Suite Apache CloudStack 2013-05-06
CloudStack support for Juniper SRX/F5 BigIP inline mode Apache CloudStack (incubating) 2013-01-27
CloudStack user-initiated SSH key reset Apache CloudStack (incubating) 2013-01-27
CloudStack Public IP assignment for EIP in a basic network Apache CloudStack (incubating) 2013-01-27
CloudStack L4-L7 Network Services Enablement Apache CloudStack (incubating) 2013-01-27
CloudStack Enhanced Baremetal Provisioning Apache CloudStack (incubating) 2013-01-25
CloudStack Egress Firewall Rules Apache CloudStack (incubating) 2013-01-25
CloudStack Documentation Apache CloudStack (incubating) 2013-01-25
mod_macro Apache HTTP Server 2013-01-14
uimaFIT Apache UIMA 2012-12-10
DeviceMap OpenDDR Apache DeviceMap (incubating) 2012-09-20
CouchDB Docs Apache CouchDB 2012-09-12
Felix UserAdmin (2nd implementation) Apache Felix 2012-09-04
Celix Device Access Apache Celix (incubating) 2012-05-16
Redback Apache Archiva 2012-04-03
Geronimo 2.2 Dependency Updates Apache Geronimo 2011-11-28
Felix Service Diagnostics Apache Felix 2011-10-18
Felix Lightweight HttpService Apache Felix 2011-09-30
Streaming WS-Security Implementation for Apache WebServices/WSS4J Apache WebServices 2011-08-23
Tomcat Maven Plugin Apache Tomcat 2011-08-08
PaDaF Apache PDFBox 2011-07-13
NPanday Incubator 2011-03-04
Leeloo Apache Amber (incubating) 2010-12-20
Bushel Apache Ant 2010-11-15
CMIS PHP Client Apache Chemistry (incubating) 2010-06-03
Felix UPNP Web Console Plugin Apache Felix 2010-04-03
Maven Indexer Apache Maven 2010-03-03
AlchemyAPI Annotator Apache UIMA (incubating) 2010-02-26
LCF connectors-metacarta Lucene Connector Framework (Incubating) 2010-02-13
OpenCMIS Apache Chemistry (incubating) 2010-02-11
cmislib Apache Chemistry (incubating) 2010-02-07
DB Torque generator Apache DB 2010-02-04
XWork Apache Struts 2009-12-29
Ant Groovy Front Apache Ant 2009-12-18
User Admin Apache Felix 2009-12-01
Improved HttpService Apache Felix 2009-09-04
Sigil Apache Felix 2009-07-03
OSGi Shell Apache Felix 2009-05-26
mod_fcgid Apache HTTP Server 2009-02-03
OpenXML4J Apache POI 2008-11-11
velocity-tiles Apache Tiles 2008-10-31
local-lucene Apache Lucene 2008-09-15
commons-flatfile Apache Commons 2008-09-04
felix-remote-shell Apache Felix 2008-08-11
Zookeeper Apache Hadoop 2008-07-15
Pax Logging Apache Felix 2008-06-02
harmony-1680-contribution-javap-kononov Apache Harmony 2008-05-22
OSGi Console Apache Felix 2008-05-13
Kitten Auth Apache Wicket 2008-05-10
harmony-5742-contribution-microemu-teodorczyk Apache Harmony 2008-04-25
UIMA-AS Apache Incubator 2008-04-23
mod_domain Apache HTTP Server 2008-04-18
maven-archiva-webdav Apache Maven 2008-03-13
File Install Apache Felix 2008-02-06
Deployment Admin Apache Felix 2008-01-09
xmlgraphics-batik-xmleditor-component Apache XML Graphics 2007-11-28
trinidad-translations Apache MyFaces 2007-11-27
torque-village-contribution Apache DB 2007-10-22
maven-shade-plugin Apache Maven 2007-09-10
jsr-301-ri Apache MyFaces 2007-09-04
maven-archetypeng Apache Maven 2007-08-29
Apache CXF Wsdl2JS Tool Apache CXF (Incubator) 2007-07-30
Shale Clay Plugin for Eclipse Apache Shale 2007-07-11
maven-patch-plugin Apache Maven 2007-07-05
Cactus Apache Jakarta 2007-03-24
jackrabbit-bundle-persistence Apache Jackrabbit 2007-03-07
derby-2248-contribution-tests-ibm Apache DB 2007-02-26
xmlgraphics-commons-postscript-dsc-parser Apache XML Graphics 2007-02-26
geronimo-2743-ibm-covalent-j2g Apache Geronimo 2007-02-19
TRIPLES-1: mod_sparql Incubator 2007-02-18
TRIPLES-2: libb Incubator 2007-02-18
TRIPLES-3: RDFStore Incubator 2007-02-18
Apache::Reload Apache-Perl 2007-02-08
derby-2134-contribution-tests-ibm Apache DB 2007-01-10
Wombat Apache HTTP Server 2006-12-06
directory-triplesec Apache Directory 2006-10-18
directory-mitosis Apache Directory 2006-10-18
harmony-438-contribution-drlvm-intel Apache Harmony / Incubator 2006-05-31
Jakarta Commons CSV Apache Jakarta 2006-04-21
xmlgraphics-fop-afp-renderer Apache XML Graphics 2006-04-20
activemq Apache Geronimo 2006-04-18
servicemix Apache Geronimo 2006-04-18
jakarta-commons-composite-pool Apache Jakarta 2006-03-19
ode-2-intalio-pxe Apache Ode / Incubator 2006-03-13
harmony-127-contribution-plugin-ibm Apache Harmony / Incubator 2006-03-01
harmony-88-contribution-tests-ibm Apache Harmony / Incubator 2006-03-01
harmony-57-contribution-tests-ibm Apache Harmony / Incubator 2006-03-01
ode-1-sybase-bpe Apache Ode / Incubator 2006-02-21
geronimo-1478-xbean Apache Geronimo 2006-02-13
harmony-16-contribution-classlib-intel Apache Harmony / Incubator 2005-12-20
myfaces-tobago Apache MyFaces 2005-12-20
harmony-14-contribution-classlib-ibm Apache Harmony / Incubator 2005-11-24
maven-surefire Apache Maven 2005-11-07
maven-doxia Apache Maven 2005-11-07
geronimo-1111-trifork-initial Apache Geronimo 2005-10-27
harmony-6-contribution-jvm-daniel-lydick Apache Harmony / Incubator 2005-10-08
harmony-3-ccontribution-jcvm-archie-cobbs Apache Harmony / Incubator 2005-10-04
harmony-5-component-poc-david-tanzer Apache Harmony / Incubator 2005-09-28
geronimo-1016-ibm-daytrader Apache Geronimo 2005-09-20
geronimo-875-ibm-eclipse Apache Geronimo 2005-08-16
geronimo-762-ibm-console Apache Geronimo 2005-07-14
geronimo-iiop Apache Geronimo 2005-01-15
apr-jlibtool Apache Portable Runtime (APR) 2004-07-08
portals-gluecode-jetspeed Apache Portals 2004-06-27
ws-sandesha Apache Web Services 2004-05-02
ws-wss4j Apache Web Services 2004-02-24

Additional notes

The software grant requires that "Licensor owns or has sufficient rights to contribute the software source code...". In the case where there are multiple entities involved that only together have sufficient rights (for example in the case of an existing external project with multiple contributors), there are basically two possibilities to continue:

  1. All entities sign the same software grant together and submit one software grant form. This is preferred but obviously can complicate the process considerably.
  2. The alternative is that each party sign its own software grant while everyone references the same contribution (designated by a URL and an MD5 hash over the ZIP file representing the contribution). It is recommended that the software grant form is modified in order to have a line for each party so the completeness of the paperwork can be verified upon receipt.