For F-ACT™ to be trusted as an open standard, the people relying on it need to know it will not be enclosed, taxed or withdrawn once they have adopted it. This page explains exactly how that is being guaranteed — in plain terms, without overclaiming.
The standard and the business are deliberately separated. One entity holds the rules; the other builds a product on top of them — on the same terms as anyone else.
Neutral Swiss foundation (Stiftung) — being established
Holds: The core claims of F-ACT — the patent claims that read on the standard itself.
Holds the core IP so that conformance to the standard can never be gated, taxed or vetoed by a single company. A Swiss Stiftung has no owners and no shareholders; its purpose is fixed in its charter and cannot be repurposed for private gain.
Australian operating company — the commercial builder
Holds: Operational patents — particular methods of achieving and proving conformance in a product.
Builds and sells the compliance platform that implements F-ACT. It keeps the operational IP that is separate from the standard, and it meets the standard on exactly the same public terms as any other implementer.
The company keeps the operational patents that describe particular ways of achieving and proving conformance inside a product. Those are separate from the core claims and are not part of the intended transfer to the Foundation.
Four properties of the pledge do the real work. Together they mean adoption does not depend on trusting any one company — including this one.
The core claims are pledged never to be asserted against anyone who implements, cites or requires the standard — irrevocable, worldwide, and for any use, commercial or not. No field-of-use limit, no per-seat fee, no registration.
When the Foundation holds the claims, it licenses them back to Society OS Pty Ltd on a non-exclusive basis — the identical terms available to any other implementer. There is no exclusive lane and no special deal for the founder’s company.
The pledge runs with the patent. If ownership ever changes hands — through the transfer to the Foundation, or anything after it — the new owner takes it already bound by the same promise. You do not have to trust the current owner; the guarantee travels with the right.
Because the pledge is made now by the current owner and binds every successor, there is no gap between “before the Foundation exists” and “after”. The guarantee is already live and stays live through the hand-over.
An honest status matters more than a grand claim. Here is what is done, what is next, and what has not happened yet.
A single Australian provisional patent application (2026900773) was filed on 2 February 2026. It is unexamined — a priority filing that establishes a date, not a granted patent.
F-ACT 1.0 was published on August 19, 2026 as an open specification, with the patent non-assertion pledge made by the current owner and binding on all successors.
The Society OS Foundation is being set up as a neutral Swiss Stiftung. Its founding documents are scheduled to be signed on 5 September 2026; the Foundation acquires legal personality only once it is entered in the Swiss commercial register, which follows.
Once the Foundation exists, the core claims that read on the standard are assigned to it, and the Foundation licenses them back to Society OS Pty Ltd on the same non-exclusive terms offered to everyone.
Independence is not a slogan; it is a set of specific measures. Some are already in force today; others are committed and dated. Here is the whole scorecard — including what has not happened yet.
The standard lives at its own domain, f-act.org — not inside a Society OS commercial site. That neutral front door is the canonical home of F-ACT.
The patent non-assertion pledge is already in force — made by the current owner and binding on every successor and assign. It cannot be quietly withdrawn.
Tiers are self-declared in a public registry and independently verifiable. No single company grants or withholds the right to claim conformance.
The specification is published, versioned and free to read, cite and implement — no licence, registration or permission required.
The founder's company relationship to the standard is disclosed openly — here and in every footer — never buried.
The core claims are to be assigned to a Swiss Stiftung with no owners or shareholders, supervised by a public authority and purpose-bound by charter. Founding documents scheduled for signature on 5 September 2026; registration follows.
On establishment, the Foundation licenses the core claims back to Society OS Pty Ltd on the same non-exclusive terms offered to everyone else.
Direction of the standard is moving to a multi-stakeholder consortium modelled on W3C, IETF and the Linux Foundation, so no single organisation holds a veto.
A Swiss Stiftung has no shareholders and no owners. Its purpose is fixed in its charter and supervised by a public authority; it cannot be quietly redirected to serve a private interest. Placing the core claims there means the answer to “who controls the rules?” is: nobody who can profit from controlling them.
Governance of the standard itself is intended to move to a multi-stakeholder consortium modelled on W3C, IETF and the Linux Foundation, so no single organisation — Society OS included — decides the standard’s direction alone.
Practical next steps for teams putting the standard to work, and the honest detail on how it is governed.
Everything on this page traces back to the published standard and the pledge. Read them directly.