MPEG LA Expands Call for Blu-ray Disc Patents; Read-Only Audio Video Included.

DENVER -- MPEG LA, LLC today expanded its call for patents essential to the implementation of the Blu-ray Disc(TM) Standard to include the System Description Blu-ray Disc Read-Only Format Part 3 Audio Visual Basic Specifications Version 1.0 (January 2006). MPEG LA's plan for forming a joint patent portfolio license to provide users with fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to the Blu-ray Disc(TM) technology as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses was first announced in a 9 November 2005 news release (see http://www.mpegla.com/news/n_05-11-09_bluray.pdf). The inclusion of the Read-Only Format Version 1, Part 3: Audio Visual Basic Specifications is in addition to the other parts of the standard earlier announced.

Any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the Standard and wishes to join the Blu-ray Disc(TM) Patent Portfolio License is invited to submit them for evaluation by MPEG LA's patent evaluators. Further information, along with terms and procedures governing patent submissions, can be found at http://www.mpegla.com/pid/bluray/. While only issued patents that are essential to the Standard will be included in the license, in order to participate in the license development process, patent applications with claims that their owners believe are essential to the Standard and likely to issue in a patent also may be submitted for an evaluation of essentiality.

Blu-ray Disc(TM) Standard

Blu-ray Disc(TM) (BD) is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, and media manufacturers. The format was developed to enable recording, re-writing and playback of high-definition video (HD) as well as storing large amounts of data. The new format uses a blue-violet laser (hence the name Blu-ray) with a short wave length (405 nm) allowing a large amount of data to be packed tightly and stored on a standard-size disc. The BD standard refers generally to (a) a rewritable optical disc, a recordable optical disc and a read-only optical disc; (b) the method of playing such discs; and (c) recording methods. For more information, see http://www.blu-raydisc.com.

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. MPEG LA is also facilitating the development of alternative patent portfolio licenses for VC-1, ATSC, DVB-H, various digital rights management (DRM) technologies including OMA DRM 1.0 and 2.0, RFID and Blu-ray Disc(TM). 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 http://www.mpegla.com.