MPEG LA Announces Plan for DMB Device License in Korea; Call for Essential Intellectual Property is First Step.

DENVER -- MPEG LA, LLC, world leader in one-stop technology platform patent licensing, today issued a call for patents that are essential to the practice of both the Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) and Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (S-DMB) standards, in order to establish a DMB Patent Portfolio License providing coverage for devices and related services utilizing T-DMB and S-DMB in the Republic of Korea.

"A key challenge to the implementation of this revolutionary digital mobile multimedia broadcasting technology is dealing with the intellectual property thicket resident in each device," said MPEG LA Chief Executive Officer Baryn Futa. "As a convenience to the marketplace, MPEG LA is pleased to play a role in facilitating an alternative license."

The call begins a process of evaluating and determining patents that are essential to these standards in order to include them in a joint patent portfolio license providing users with fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to the technology as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses. A summary of the MPEG LA plan with reference to the T-DMB and S-DMB standards is attached.

DMB

Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) is designed to provide television, radio and data services in mobile reception environments both terrestrially (T-DMB) and by satellite (S-DMB) using state-of-the-art technologies. In the Republic of Korea where S-DMB and T-DMB are in current use, DMB is supported by the Ministry of Information and Communication, Republic of Korea, under the umbrella of "SmarTV Technology Development."

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 separate licenses. 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. In addition to DMB, MPEG LA is also facilitating the development of alternative patent portfolio licenses for VC-1, ATSC, MPEG 2 Systems, DVB-H, various digital rights management (DRM) technologies including OMA DRM 1.0 and 2.0, RFID, and Blu-ray Disc(TM). MPEG LA also actively seeks to adopt its alternative patent licensing model in other industries including biotech and pharmaceutical. For more information, please refer to http://www.mpegla.com.

ATTACHMENT

Following is a summary of the MPEG LA plan for licensing of T-DMB and S-DMB essential patents:

1. Objective:

To establish a portfolio of essential worldwide patents that are necessary for implementation of both Terrestrial and Satellite DMB Standards (T-DMB and S-DMB) in the Republic of Korea (may be expanded to other markets as they develop) in order to provide users with fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to as much essential intellectual property as possible under one license.

2. Licensed patents:

Essential patents initially may consist of issued or otherwise enforceable patents in the Republic of Korea (and may expand to other markets as they develop) having one or more claims that would be necessarily infringed by the implementation of the Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) standard or Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (S-DMB) standard ("Standards") as embodied in the following documents:

T-DMB

ETSI TS 102 427 V1.1.1 (2005-07)

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB); Data Broadcasting -- MPEG-2 TS streaming

ETSI TS 102 428 V1.1.1 (2005-06)

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB); DMB video service; User Application Specification

and those portions (but not any other portions) of the following documents referred to by ETSI TS 102 427 and ETSI TS 102 428:

(1) ETSI EN 300 401: "Radio Broadcasting Systems; Digital
               Audio Broadcasting (DAB) to mobile portable and fixed
               receivers"
          (2) ETSI EN 300 744: "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB);
               Framing structure, channel coding and modulation for
               digital terrestrial television"
          (3) ISO/IEC 13818-1: "Information technology - Generic
               coding of moving pictures and associated audio
               information: Part 1 Systems"
          (4) ISO/IEC 14496-1: "Information technology - Coding of
               audio-visual objects - Part 1: Systems"
          (5) ISO/IEC 14496-3: "Information technology - Coding of
               audio-visual objects - Part 3: Audio"
          (6) ETSI TS 101 756: "Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB);
               Registered tables"
          (7) ISO/IEC 14496-10: "Information technology - Coding of
               audio-visual objects - Part 10: Systems"
          (8) ITU-T Recommendation H.264: "Advanced video coding for
               generic audiovisual services"

The foregoing documents may be obtained at: http://webapp.etsi.org/action/PU/20050712/ts_102427v010101p.pdf http://webapp.etsi.org/action/PU/20050628/ts_102428v010101p.pdf

S-DMB

TTAS.KO-07.0027: "Standard for Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting Transmitter/Receiver Interface", September 22, 2004

and those portions (but not any other portions) of the following documents referred to by TTAS.KO-07.0027:

(1) ITU-R Rec. BO. 1130-4 ANNEX 6 Digital System E : Systems
               for digital satellite broadcasting to vehicular,
               portable and fixed receivers in the bands allocated to
               BSS (sound) in the frequency range 1 400-2 700 MHz
          (2) ISO/IEC 13818-1/2000/Amendment 3 : Generic coding of
               moving pictures and associated audio information -
               Systems
          (3) ISO/IEC 13818-6 : Generic coding of moving pictures and
               associated audio  information - Extensions for DSM-CC
          (4) ISO/IEC 13818-7 : Generic coding of moving pictures and
               associated audio information - Part 7: Advanced Audio
               Coding (AAC)
          (5) ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/Amendment 1 : Bandwidth Extension
          (6) ISO/IEC 14496-10 AVC : Advanced Video Coding for Generic
               Audiovisual Services
          (7) EN 300 468 Digital Video Broadcasting(DVB) :
               Specification for Service Information(SI) in DVB system
          (8) ITU, ITU-T REC. H.220.0 Infrastructure of audiovisual
               services -Transmission multiplexing and synchronization
          (9) ISO 3166 : Codes for the representation of names of
               countries and their subdivisions
         (10) ISO/IEC 8859-1 : 8-bit single-byte coded graphic
               character sets - Part 1: Latin alphabet No. 1
         (11) ISO/IEC 11172-3 : Coding of moving pictures and
               associated audio for digital storage media at up to
               about 1,5 Mbit/s
         (12) ITU-R Rec BO. 1504 : Effective utilization of spectrum
               assigned to the broadcasting-satellite service
         (13) KS X 1005-1
         (14) KS X 5601

The foregoing documents may be obtained at: http://www.tta.or.kr/Home2003/library/ttasList.jsp

In addition, to assure that the 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, any owner of a patent application in the Republic of Korea with claims that the owner believes are essential to the Standards and likely to issue in a patent is welcome to submit it for an evaluation of its essentiality by independent patent experts in order potentially to participate in the license development process (only issued patents would be included in the license, however). If a patent application with essential claims does not issue as a patent or is found not to contain essential claims when it subsequently issues as a patent, it will no longer provide a basis for participation.

3. Organization

The patent portfolio may require at least the following functions:

First, as Evaluation Facilitator, MPEG LA has made the call described in this announcement for the submission of patents (and patent applications) for an evaluation of their essentiality by patent experts and inclusion in a joint license if determined to be essential. MPEG LA also will facilitate the evaluation process, convene the initial group of essential patent holders and facilitate their deliberations to consider terms of a joint license as described below.

Second, an Evaluator (identified below) will evaluate patents (and patent applications) for essentiality with respect to both T-DMB and S-DMB standards. Any party that believes it has essential patents (or patent applications) is invited to submit them for evaluation and inclusion in accordance with the terms and procedures governing submissions (see section 5 below).

Third, an initial group of essential patent (and patent application) holders who have agreed to the terms governing the submission of patents (and patent applications) and been found by the independent patent experts to have essential intellectual property in the Republic of Korea will be convened to decide licensing terms. Patent evaluations will continue and submissions may continue to be made for later inclusion and participation by patent owners. After joint license terms are decided, evaluations will continue throughout the course of the license in order to include as much essential intellectual property as possible. Other markets may be included at a later time as they develop.

Fourth, a licensing administrator will be chosen by the initial group of patent holders. The licensing administrator will be granted non-exclusive sublicensing rights from the essential patent owners under licensed patents in order to sublicense those patents under terms of the joint patent license and will actively promote the licensing program and collect royalties for the benefit of the patent owners.

Fifth, an administrative committee consisting of representatives of the essential patent owners will monitor certain activities of the licensing administrator.

4. Licensing details

To be determined by the essential patent owners.

5. Schedule (Initial Plan)

Initial submissions: by February 1, 2006. Any party that believes it has a patent (or patent application) in the Republic of Korea that is essential to the Standards and wishes to join the DMB Patent Portfolio License is invited to submit it for evaluation by MPEG LA's patent experts. Patents issued by or applied for in the Republic of Korea will be evaluated for their essentiality by Moon & Moon International, Seoul, Korea, in cooperation with Dr. Kenneth Rubenstein of Proskauer Rose LLP, New York, New York. Further information, along with terms and procedures governing patent submissions, can be found at http://www.mpegla.com/pid/DMB/. Although submissions may continue to be made after that date, patent or patent application owners who submit patents or patent applications by that date which are determined to be essential will be invited to attend an initial meeting of essential patent holders expected to be held in March 2006. For more information in Korean language, please direct inquiries to [e-mail].