FAQ
Please email any questions you have to our
Q&A Department.
Q: What does the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License cover?
A: The MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License provides coverage under
MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio Patents for the MPEG-2 Video and Systems
standard specifications: ISO/IEC IS 13818-1 Information Technology -
Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio Information
including annexes C, D, F, J, and K; ISO/IEC IS 13818-2 including
annexes A, B, C, D but excluding scaleable extensions; and IS 13818-4
but only as it is needed to clarify IS 13818-2 ("MPEG-2 standard").
As of January 1, 2006, parties using the MPEG-2 Systems Standard in products
without licensed MPEG-2 video encoders or decoders will benefit from coverage under
the MPEG-2 Systems Patent Portfolio License, in addition to other licenses
that may be required (e.g., for non-MPEG-2 video codecs).
Q: Who are the essential patent holders ("Licensors") to the
MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License?
A: The MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License currently includes essential
patents owned by Alcatel Lucent, British Telecommunications plc, Canon, Inc., CIF Licensing, LLC, Columbia
University, France Télécom (CNET)**, Fujitsu, General Instrument Corp.*, GE
Technology Development, Inc., Hitachi, Ltd., KDDI Corporation (KDDI), LG
Electronics Inc., Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
Corporation (NTT), Philips, Robert Bosch GmbH***, Samsung, Sanyo Electric
Co., Ltd., Scientific-Atlanta, Sharp, Sony, Thomson Licensing,
Toshiba, and Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC).
Q: What are the obligations of the Licensors with regard to their
essential MPEG-2 Essential patents?
A: Each Licensor is under an obligation to grant to MPEG LA a
worldwide, nonexclusive license under all MPEG-2 Essential Patents that
it has the right to license or sublicense to allow MPEG LA to grant
worldwide, nonexclusive sublicenses under such patents under terms of
the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License.
Q: Are all MPEG-2 essential patents included?
A: No assurance is or can be made that the License includes every
essential patent. The purpose of the License is to offer a convenient
licensing alternative to everyone on the same terms and to include as
much essential intellectual property as possible for their convenience.
Participation in the License is voluntary on the part of essential
patent holders, however.
Q: How may a patent holder become a Licensor to the MPEG-2 Patent
Portfolio License?
A: Any party that believes it has patents which are essential to the
MPEG-2 Standard, and wishes to participate in the MPEG-2 Patent
Portfolio License upon successful evaluation, is invited to submit them
for evaluation and inclusion.
Click here
to request a copy of the terms and procedures governing
the patent submission process.
Q: Who decides which patents are essential?
A: Dr. Kenneth Rubenstein of the New York-based law firm Proskauer
Rose LLP heads the independent patent evaluation and is MPEG LA's US
patent counsel. Other members of the team include Gottfried Schull,
Thomas Rox and Ralph Schipppan of Cohausz & Florack in Düsseldorf for
the evaluation of European patents; Hideo Ozaki of Ohba and Ozaki in
Tokyo for the evaluation of Japanese patents; and Moon & Moon of Seoul,
Korea for the evaluation of Korean patents.
Q: What is the effect on Licensees when new patents are added to
the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License?
A: New Licensors and new patents are added with no increase in
royalty rates during the current Term of the License. Licensees enjoy
coverage under such patents from the License effective date (June 1,
1994) forward.
Q: How is the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License organized?
A: Please refer to the License
Agreement.
Q: What are the royalties for the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License
and on which products are they payable?
A: Please refer to the License
Agreement.
Q: If I have an MPEG-2 Transport Program Stream Product as defined in
the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License, is that product covered by the MPEG-2
patent Portfolio License or the MPEG-2 Systems Patent Portfolio License?
A: It is covered under either of them, but under the MPEG-2 Systems
Patent Portfolio License, the applicable royalty is US $0.50 per device while
the applicable royalty under the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License is the
greater of US $4.00 times greater of input or output streams. To the extent
such a product is licensed with applicable patent holders under one of these
agreements, it need not be licensed under the other.
Q: What is the current Term of the MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio
License?
A: The current term runs through December 31, 2010. The License is
renewable for successive five year periods for the useful life of any
Portfolio patent on reasonable terms and conditions.
Q: Is there a limitation on the amount that royalty rates may
increase at each renewal?
A: If royalty rates were to increase, they will not increase by more
than 25% of the royalty rates set forth in the License immediately prior
to renewal. In fact, even though the number of essential patent holders
has increased from the initial eight to the current 23, and the number
of essential patent families has increased from the original 25
representing 100 patent families worldwide to the current 128 patent
families representing 646 patents in 56 countries, the royalty rates
have not increased; instead they have decreased by some 40% - 58% in the
case of MPEG-2 decoders-encoders and by 25% in the case of MPEG-2
packaged media.
Q: How does MPEG LA ensure that sublicensing remains fair,
reasonable and non-discriminatory?
A: The patent portfolio license offered by MPEG LA has the same
terms and conditions for all licensees. Further, the license also
ensures a fair process of obtaining new MPEG-2 essential patents and for
a licensee to license its own MPEG-2 essential patents to the pool on
the same terms and conditions as all licensors.
Q: What is the difference between MPEG-1 and MPEG-2?
A: The original goal of the ISOs MPEG committee was to create a
standard for the delivery of video on a compact disc. The committee
specifically targeted bitrates of around 1.2 Mbits per second (Mbps) for
video. That original standard is known as MPEG-1.
The ISOs MPEG Committee developed a second effort that takes advantage
of higher bandwidths (data rates) to deliver higher image resolution and
picture quality. Specifically, this effort targeted increased image
quality in ranges from about 3 to 15 Mbps, support of interlaced video
formats, and provision for multi-resolution scalability. This is MPEG-2.
*Up to and through date of last patent expiration (October 26, 2006)
**Up to and through date of last patent expiration (May 31, 2007)
***Up to and through date of last patent expiration (December 11, 2007)
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