Schedule 6 – Knowledge Partnership Guidelines

These guidelines govern institutional knowledge partnerships established by the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law (ISAIL). Partnerships may serve technical tracks under OpenBharat.net, academic initiatives under the ISAIL Academic Council, or broader transnational AI policy and legal research tracks.

(1) Partnership Framework and Engagement Structure:

• Eligible Entities: Knowledge Partners may include universities, academic departments, research labs, incubators, industry associations, and public interest non-profits sharing an interest in AI standardisation, algorithmic governance, or legal policy research.

• Principal-to-Principal Relation: All knowledge partnerships operate strictly on a principal-to-principal basis. Nothing in this Schedule creates any partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship between ISAIL and the Knowledge Partner.

• Dual Track Engagement: Partners may collaborate across either:

  • OpenBharat.net Working Groups (OWG-POL, OWG-ENG, OWG-STR) for technical standards, open reference tooling, and engineering sandboxes; or

  • The ISAIL Academic Council and associated policy forums for doctrinal research, transnational legal comparison, jurisprudence reviews, and academic symposia.

(2) Permissible Scope of Collaboration:

• Conduit for Stakeholder Consultations: ISAIL acts as a neutral convener, hosting roundtables, technical sprints, and consultative hearings to synthesize multi-stakeholder perspectives on AI safety, compute policy, and statutory compliance.

• Empirical Surveys and Field Research: Where a Knowledge Partner participates in empirical studies or field surveys supporting standard setting, all data collection, attribution, and property rights are governed strictly by Schedule 3 (Section 2) and Article 23.

• Capacity Building and Symposia: Partners may co-organize workshops, academic colloquia, and technical clinics on AI governance, developer literacy, and legal risk management under the programmatic oversight of the Secretariat or the Academic Council.

• Aggregated Outputs and Syntheses: Summaries, outcome documents, and briefs produced under these engagements serve as aggregated stakeholder viewpoints and do not constitute formal legal opinions or singular institutional endorsements by ISAIL or OpenBharat.net.

(3) Intellectual Property, Licensing, and Attribution:

• Title and Background IP: Each party retains full title to its pre-existing materials, background IP, and independent research tools.

• Public Commons Alignment: Joint standardisation outputs, specifications, and whitepapers generated within OpenBharat.net tracks shall be licensed under the open frameworks established in Article 6a of the ISAIL Charter and Article 23.

• Academic Releases: Doctrinal and policy outputs managed via the Academic Council may be published under Creative Commons licensing (such as CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-NC-ND) as determined in the specific partnership memo.

• Attribution Safeguards: Knowledge Partners retain the right to institutional attribution in joint releases as recognized survey or research partners, without conveying editorial control or derivative veto power.

(4) Neutrality, Confidentiality, and Integrity:

• Zero-Tolerance Compliance: All knowledge partner activities, fellowships, and sprint exchanges must strictly comply with the anti-bribery and conflict of interest covenants of Article 31 and Articles 3 and 4 of the ISAIL Charter.

• Information Fences: Confidential datasets, pre-ratification standards, or private security audits shared during closed sessions must remain protected pursuant to Article 24.

• Commercial and Policy Neutrality: Knowledge partnerships shall not be used to promote commercial software, validate proprietary vendor claims, or exercise partisan influence over standard drafting.

(5) Branding and External Communications:

• Logomark Usage: Any use of OpenBharat.net or ISAIL logomarks must strictly adhere to the color codes, clear-space parameters, and approvals set forth in Article 25.

• Clear Role Distinction: Partners referencing ISAIL or OpenBharat.net in external announcements, press releases, or academic citations must accurately state the partnership capacity (e.g., academic collaborator, survey execution partner) and comply with the public statement rules in Article 30.

• Periodic Review and Sunsetting: The Secretariat shall periodically evaluate active partnerships. Bilateral accords may be terminated or updated by mutual consent or upon written notice if activities diverge from ISAIL's constitutional principles or working group requirements.

(6) Grandfathering and Continuity of Existing Accords:

• Institutional Preservation: All bilateral memorandums of understanding, research compacts, institutional knowledge accords, and academic partnerships executed prior to the adoption of this Schedule shall remain in full force and effect according to their underlying terms.

• Seamless Track Mapping: Existing engagements with entities primarily focused on developer tooling, system architectures, or technical benchmarking shall naturally interface with the relevant OpenBharat.net Working Groups (OWG-ENG, OWG-POL, OWG-STR), while engagements with law schools, legal researchers, and public policy institutes shall continue through the ISAIL Academic Council or Secretariat research desks.

• Harmonisation Without Re-Execution: No legacy partnership requires immediate formal re-execution merely on account of brand restructuring or track realignment; however, any subsequent standardisation outputs, empirical surveys, or co-branded publications arising from continuing arrangements shall automatically abide by the licensing, attribution, and IP stewardship terms set out in Article 6a of the ISAIL Charter and Article 23 and Schedule 3 of this Charter.