Development of DVB-H Patent License Begins; Initial Patent Holders Meeting Convened.

DENVER -- MPEG LA today announced that essential DVB-H patent holders met on July 8, 2005, to begin the process of structuring a joint license in order to make this technology easily accessible to all users.

The initial group of essential patent holders included France Telecom, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.), Philips, and Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC). Evaluation of patents for their essentiality to the DVB-H standard submitted by other parties continues in order to include as much essential intellectual property as possible in one license for the benefit of the marketplace

Keenly aware of the strong marketplace interest in a joint patent license for DVB-H mobile digital television technology, the essential patent holders made progress toward building an overall framework for the joint license. A second meeting will be held in September 2005 to reach consensus on licensing terms with the objective of reaching an agreement by the fourth quarter of 2005.

MPEG LA continues to welcome the submission of patents for an evaluation of their essentiality to the standard in order to be included in a joint patent license. Any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the standard and wishes to join the DVB-H Patent Portfolio License is invited to submit their patents for evaluation by MPEG LA's patent experts. Further information, along with terms and procedures governing patent submissions, can be found at http://www.mpegla.com/pid/dvbh/.

MPEG LA, LLC 

MPEG LA is the world leader in one-stop technology platform patent licenses, enabling users to acquire patent rights necessary for a particular technology standard or platform from multiple patent holders in a single transaction as an alternative to negotiating a license with each of them. Wherever an independently administered one-stop patent license would provide a convenient marketplace alternative to assist users with implementation of their technology choices, the licensing model pioneered and employed by MPEG LA may provide a solution. MPEG LA is not related to any standards agency and is not an affiliate of any patent holder. MPEG LA licenses portfolios of essential patents for the MPEG-2, IEEE 1394, DVB-T, MPEG-4 Visual (Part 2), MPEG-4 Systems and AVC/H.264 (also known as MPEG-4 Part 10) standards. MPEG LA is also facilitating the development of alternative patent portfolio licenses for VC-1, ATSC, DVB-H and various digital rights management (DRM) technologies including OMA DRM 1.0 and 2.0. In addition, MPEG LA actively seeks to adopt its alternative patent licensing model in other industries including biotech and pharmaceutical. For more information, please refer to www.mpegla.com.