MPEG LA to Expand AVC Patent Portfolio License Coverage; Royalty Rates to Remain the Same - Printer Friendly version without Comments

Appeared on: Saturday, January 29, 2005
MPEG LA to Expand AVC Patent Portfolio License Coverage; Royalty Rates to Remain the Same

MPEG LA announced that it plans to expand the AVC Patent Portfolio License to include coverage of AVC Fidelity Range Extensions ("FRExt/AVC"), which were recently added to the AVC/H.264 video standard (ISO/IEC IS14496-10).

For the convenience of licensees, the current royalty rates provided under the AVC Patent Portfolio License would remain the same and would continue to apply whether one or more AVC profiles (including FRExt/AVC) is used. The amended license, expected to issue in March 2005, would cover both existing and future licensees.

The AVC Patent Portfolio License is offered for the convenience of AVC users enabling them to obtain coverage under essential patents owned by multiple patent holders in a single license as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses with each of them. It is MPEG LA's objective to include in the AVC Patent Portfolio License as much essential intellectual property as possible for the benefit of licensees. Therefore, any party that believes it has a patent which is essential to FRExt/AVC or other parts of the AVC/H.264 standard (as currently described in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 N 6539 "Text of ISO/IEC 14496 10/FDAM1 AVC Fidelity Range Extensions" and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 N 6540 "Text of ISO/IEC 14496-10 Advanced Video Coding 3rd Edition" July 2004) and would like to participate in the AVC Patent Portfolio License is invited to submit its patent(s) for an evaluation of essentiality by MPEG LA's patent experts and inclusion in the License if determined to be essential. Interested parties may request a copy of the terms and procedures governing patent submissions by going to http://www.mpegla.com/avc/avc-licensors.cfm.

Current holders of essential patents in the AVC Patent Portfolio License include Columbia Innovation Enterprises, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), France Telecom, societe anonyme, Fujitsu Limited, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Microsoft Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Robert Bosch GmbH, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Sony Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, and Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC).