Welcome to MPEG LA, world leader in alternative technology licenses.

A patent is the grant of a property right covering an invention. The right conferred by the patent gives its owner the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention in the absence of a license. Where standards and other technology platforms consist of many patents owned by many patent owners, the number of licenses required of users may be too costly and inefficient for users to negotiate. This is often referred to as a patent thicket. By increasing uncertainty and conflict and restricting freedom of movement surrounding use of a technology, a patent thicket may impede its adoption, interoperability and use.

In the 1990s the MPEG-2 standard, which is required for DVD, faced a patent thicket. The single biggest challenge to MPEG-2 adoption was access to essential patents. MPEG-2 patents owned by many parties made it virtually impossible for the standard to be used. MPEG LA offered an alternative as a solution addressing the market’s need for transactional efficiency. As a convenience to users, the licensing model pioneered and employed by MPEG LA enables multiple MPEG-2 users to acquire essential patent rights from multiple patent holders in a single transaction as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses. MPEG-2 became the most successful standard in consumer electronics history, and the MPEG LA^® Licensing Model has become the template for addressing other patent thickets.

Wherever an independently administered one-stop patent license would provide a convenient alternative to assist users with implementation of their technology choices, the MPEG LA^® Licensing Model may provide a solution. MPEG LA is granted a nonexclusive sublicense from essential patent owners, collects and distributes royalties for the benefit of essential patent owners, and receives an administrative fee out of royalties collected. MPEG LA is an independent licensing administrator; it is not related to any standards agency and is not itself a user or owner of patents under license or an affiliate of a patent owner.

By balancing patent users’ interest in reasonable access with patent owners’ interest in reasonable return, MPEG LA creates the opportunity for adoption of new technologies and fuels innovation. Today MPEG LA clears patent thickets in licensing programs consisting of essential patents in 57 countries (http://www.mpegla.com). Additional licensing programs are in development (http://www.mpegla.com/pid/).