Development of Joint Patent License for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Makes Progress; Meeting of Essential Patent Holders Convened by MPEG LA Puts License on Fast Track.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 7, 2003

MPEG LA convened a meeting of essential H.264/MPEG-4 AVC patent and patent application holders in Washington, DC, on June 23 and June 24 to begin the process of determining joint licensing terms. Parties with patents or patent applications determined by MPEG LA's patent experts to be essential to the H.264/AVC standard ("standard") were invited to participate.

The essential patent and patent application holders are keenly aware of the intense marketplace interest in knowing the terms of a joint license for this important new technology as soon as possible, and the very positive and cooperative consensus-building atmosphere of their first meeting suggests that this goal is achievable. The meeting included discussion on an overall framework for a license, and a second meeting will be held July 31 to discuss proposed licensing terms in an effort to achieve their goal of reaching agreement on joint license terms during the fourth quarter 2003.

Parties with patents or patent applications determined by MPEG LA's patent experts to be essential to the H.264/AVC standard ("standard") so far include Columbia University, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute of Korea (ETRI), France Telecom, Fujitsu, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Philips, Polycom, Robert Bosch GmbH, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Thomson, Toshiba, and Victor Company of Japan (JVC).

MPEG LA continues to welcome the submission of patents and patent applications for an evaluation of their essentiality to the standard in order to include as much essential intellectual property as possible under one license for the benefit of the marketplace and also to assure that the joint license development process may benefit from the views of parties who potentially may obtain essential patent rights in the future as well as those who currently have them. See http://www.mpegla.com/news/n_03-06-13_jvt.html. For each patent or patent application submitted, an evaluation fee of US $8,500.00 to cover the outside cost of the patent expert's evaluation is paid to MPEG LA. Additional fees may be required to cover additional outside costs in the event of reevaluation by patent experts. Submitting parties must confirm their agreement with the terms and procedures governing the patent submission process which may be obtained from Jane Tannenbaum, Director, Contract Administration ([e-mail]).

MPEG LA, LLC 

MPEG LA successfully pioneered one-stop technology standards licensing with a portfolio of essential patents for the international digital video compression standard known as MPEG-2. One-stop technology standards licensing enables widespread technological implementation, interoperability and use of fundamental broad-based technologies covered by many patents owned by many patent holders. MPEG LA provides users with fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to these essential patents on a worldwide basis under a single license. In addition to MPEG-2, MPEG LA licenses portfolios of essential patents for the IEEE 1394 Standard, the DVB-T Standard, the MPEG-4 Visual Standard and the MPEG-4 Systems standard. For more information, please refer to http://www.mpegla.com, http://www.1394la.com and http://www.dvbla.com. MPEG LA is based in Denver, Colorado, USA.