TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter explores the MPEG video patent situation. The MPEG patent problem is described, a brief history is given of the effort to create a collaborative patent pool, and some statistics about MPEG video patents are summarized. A contact point is provided for more information.
The establishment of a standard and all the associated elements of technology does not preempt the intellectual property rights (IPR) of the inventors of those elements. As a result, implementers of the standard need a license for each piece of IPR. The purpose of the MPEG patent analysis effort has been to provide a simple, reasonably priced mechanism for implementers to license MPEG technology. Its goal is the establishment of a pool of patent holders which ideally will be able to grant a single license covering all applicable intellectual property needed to implement MPEG decoders for the mass market. The scope covers video and systems technology for the MPEG-1 standard and for the MPEG-2 standard main profile at main level (MP@ML).
The ISO policy on intellectual property in standards states that all owners of intellectual property rights to technology necessary to implement a standard shall provide a statement to ISO guaranteeing that licenses to use the IPR will be available on an equal basis to everyone at fair and reasonable rates. Should an owner not provide such a statement, ISO requires the standard to...
