Non-Commercialism Policy

Pan European Electronics Design Conference Non-Commercialism Policy

Revision 2.0 | May 2, 2024

Intent

The intent of this document is to outline the Pan-European Electronics Design Conference (PEDC) Non-Commercialism Policy requirements. Examples of acceptable and unacceptable non-commercialism practices are included.

Scope

This document applies to technical conference abstracts, presentations, and optional papers submitted to the PEDC.

Definition

For purposes of this document, commercialism is defined as repeated or undue reference to proprietary, company or trade names, patented materials or processes, or any company-specific item offered for sale or trade.

Important considerations when determining if commercialism is an issue include but not limited to:

• Frequency – is there unwarranted repeating, excessive usage of a commercial element?
• Intent – what is the intent of the description used? Non-commercial descriptions are preferred.

Non-Commercialism Policy

The PEDC is held to provide a forum for the electronics industry to collaborate, share, and learn with the objective to drive the industry forward. The conference is not intended to advance specific commercial interests. Instead, the conference is intended to promote the exploration and sharing of new technical advancements that are non-commercial in nature. With this in mind, PEDC’s Non-Commercialism Policy is as follows:

[1] PEDCs abstracts, presentations, and optional papers, Q&A sessions, and panel discussions shall be free of commercial bias and shall not imply PEDC’s endorsement of any commercial interest.

[2] The intent of PEDCs presentations and papers shall be to educate the audience about research or technological application, not to advertise or promote commercial entities or other external groups.

[3] Speakers and authors shall make every attempt to reference ‘generic non-commercial descriptions,’ when describing their work including materials, tools, software, equipment, methods, processes, solutions, products, or services.

[4] Commercial description/recognition may be provided or implied only when,

• doing so is NECESSARY to provide clarity to scientific and engineering understanding of associated  technologies and when;
• other generic description are insufficient or unavailable.

[5] Commercial description/recognition opportunities in [4]  shall be administered fairly and may include limited use of trade names, trademarks, copyright, citations, or acknowledgements. Inclusion must not be intended to be promotional, and no PEDC endorsement is conveyed.

[6] All submitted abstracts, presentations, and optional papers are reviewed by the PEDC’s Technical Program Committee for compliance to this Non-Commercialism Policy. The Program Committee is responsible for identifying commercialism issues and violations.

[7] Content not meeting the requirements of this document will be returned to the author for correction and conformance to this Non-Commercialism Policy. If, within the published timelines, the speaker/author has not made the necessary corrections or requested edits to comply with the stated commercialism guidelines, the Program Committee and the PEDC organization team retain the right to remove the submission from the Conference program. The Program Committee and the PEDC organization team also reserve the right to reject such submissions outright without requesting speaker modification.

[8] The Program Committee will notify the authors of infractions, required changes, and will address any infraction appeals. Appeals shall be submitted in writing to the PEDC organization team for review.

[9] The PEDC organization team will provide a template for the PowerPoint slides that must be used to create the presentations. The use of company templates is not permitted.

Non-Compliance Penalty

Speakers/Authors are encouraged to keep this policy in mind as they conduct their presentations and papers. Failure to adhere to these guidelines may disqualify the content from presentation at the conference or from further consideration for awards. Commercialism violation during presentation periods will result in the presentation being halted and will include the speaker being asked to leave the session. Repeat violations may preclude speakers, authors, or company from presenting at future PEDC conferences.

Examples

The following are examples of what the Program Committee considers “ACCEPTABLE” and “UNACCEPTABLE” with regard to commercialism. These examples apply to all speakers/authors whether they are affiliated with suppliers, manufacturers, contractors, or end users. These examples of policy intent are not a complete list of policy applications, nor are they intended to cover the full intent of the policy. They provide guidance.

Acceptable

The following shall be acceptable for abstracts, technical papers, and discussions during live presentations and instruction:

• Author’s complete name, business affiliation, commercial names and logos may be used in papers and presentations to provide author identification or to acknowledge contributions as follows:
  • Presentations Slides: Allowed once on either the first or last slide of the presentation
  • Technical Paper: Allowed once in heading of paper
• Company names and products may be cited in presentations and papers if such information has historical significance directly relating to the technology discussed in a presentation or paper.
• Manufacturer and model number of test instruments may be noted if such identification is required to allow accurate reproduction of the work described (e.g., listed in experimental section)
• Authors/presenters shall be sensitive to the fact that results may carry a level of endorsement or disparagement, e.g., testing of solder pastes by an OEM.  Generic names shall be used, e.g., “Material A,” to avoid perceived endorsements or disparagements.
• Authors/presenters should be sensitive to the use of equipment/processes/software not owned by the author’s company which may carry a level of endorsement. The intent is to allow others to replicate research without endorsement of a particular product. The Experimental Section allows the use of specific equipment/process/software information once, only as a way to advance reproducibility of the described work and the technical field in general. Generic names shall be used otherwise before the experimental section or thereafter.
• Photos or slides of a product installed in a “real world” application, directly related to an understanding of the paper, that do NOT intentionally identify the company who supplied the product.
• Slides or photos that have masked unacceptable trademarks or logos for presentation. Note that the quality of the slides influences the evaluation of the oral presentation. Authors should attempt to mask unacceptable logos and names prior to taking photos. When this cannot be done, the author must consider other means to alter or touch-up the photos prior to presentation.
• Company specific information may be defined and referenced a single time in the footnotes section of the paper or presentation (e.g., “New Solder X911 = Material A,” for understanding).
• Well-known, established industry trade names can be used (one instance) if needed to describe an element where a generic description is not sufficient (e.g.,) Kleenex, Parylene HT, Entek 106A / HT, Rogers PTFE).
• Non-technical trademark names that have become so common over time that they are often used as generic names (e.g., Scotch-Tape, Teflon, Neoprene).
• Product and organization names that have no commercial significance to the presentation other than to convey information necessary for a more complete understanding by the audience (e.g., IBM-compatible PC, Microsoft Excel software).
• To refuse to discuss commercial aspects of the topic during the question-and-answer session. The presenter or session chair should advise the person asking the question that it cannot be answered due to its commercial nature.
• Direct and specific reference to nationally- or internationally recognized consensus standards organizations.
• Affiliation(s) of person(s) mentioned in the Acknowledgments Section (if included). The affiliated company or institution’s name only should appear in parenthesis beside the acknowledged person’s name — e.g., Engineer (ABC Company) — if affiliate is recognized at all.

Unacceptable

The following shall be unacceptable for abstracts, presentations, optional papers, and discussions during live presentations:

• Excessive, multiple instance use of company logos (see acceptable listing for allowances).
• Excessive, multiple instance use of product trade names, trademarks ä, or copyrights ©.
• The title or the text of papers and presentations may not promote a commercial product or service.
• The use of commercial names may not be done in ways that promote the benefits of that commercial entity nor be used to principally further awareness of that commercial entity.
• The subject of presentations and papers may not be to promote a commercial entity’s exclusively available commercial product and service.
• Commercial part numbers and trade names may not be used in a presentation or paper title, text, or illustrations unless such information is necessary for advancing technical knowledge.
• Direct quotes from references that make commercial statements.
• Identifying information or company logos within the body of the paper or within the presentation slides, except as listed as “acceptable,” below.

If there are any questions regarding this policy, contact the PEDC organization team at submission@pedc.eu.

There are no acceptable reasons for not complying with these requirements.