Rival license schemes square up over Versatile Video Coding (VVC)

Business news | January 27, 2022

By Nick Flaherty

MPEG LA has launched a patent portfolio license for the latest Versatile Video Coding (VVC, also known as H.266 and MPEG-I Part 3) video coding standard, following the launch of a rival scheme.

VVC provides increased compression with significant bitrate reduction, giving consumers enhanced speed and efficiency in products that encode and decode video for Internet, television and mobile transmission, reception and use. VVC is capable of delivering 4K to 8K and higher resolution with High-Definition Television (HDTV), Ultra-High-Definition Television (UHD), High Dynamic Range (HDR) and omnidirectional 360° video.

The initial patent owners to MPEG LA’s VVC License are the BBC in the UK, Digital Insights, FG Innovation, Hanwha Techwin, Koninklijke KPN, Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Orange, Siemens, Tagivan II LLC and Vidyo.

However this is an alternative patent licensing group for VVC called Access Advanced. Earlier this month it announced its scheme with 28 members including Alibaba, Dolby Labs, Arris, KDDI, Koninklijke Philips, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic, SK Telecom and Toshiba.

Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Sony were all involved in the development of the VVC standard but are not part of either scheme.

“This is a tremendous endorsement of the VVC Advance Patent Pool and our Video Codec Platform Initiative, and we thank each of the patent owners that have placed their trust in Access Advance to license their VVC SEP patent assets,” said Pete Moller, CEO of Access Advance. “Launching a patent pool for a ground-breaking technology like VVC is a long and multi-stage process. We worked with over fifty patent owners for well over 18 months to establish the structure of the program and launched the VVC Advance Patent Pool on schedule July 1, 2021. We are excited that a significant majority of these patent owners have now officially joined the program as Licensors.

“We look forward to working with the remaining patent owners who are still going through their decision-making process and expect that many of them will make the decision to join VVC Advance over the next six months,” he said. “There are significant incentives for patent owners and patent implementers who join the program by June 30, 2022. These include bonus patent points for Licensors, and very significant early signing cap incentives for Licensees.”

The VVC Advance Patent Pool incorporates the current HEVC H.265 compression technologies with VVC into a single discounted royalty rate structure with simplified reporting and payment obligations for Licensees whose products include both codecs.

MPEG LA holds the license pools for a wide range of MPEG standards as well Qi wireless charging and EV charging.

“We commend these patent owners for stepping up in such a short time to establish this important license embracing all manner of VVC applications with a simplicity that the market can understand, and we welcome all VVC essential patent owners to join them,” said Larry Horn, President and CEO of MPEG LA. “Once again, MPEG LA’s VVC License demonstrates MPEG LA’s continued commitment to striking a balance between patent holders and implementers to make VVC widely available to everyone on the same reasonable, transparent and evenly applied terms consistent with what the market has come to expect of us. Now more than ever, the market for next generation video needs a pool license it can trust.”

MPEG LA’s objective is to offer worldwide access to as many VVC essential patents as possible to everyone on the same terms under a single license. Therefore, MPEG LA welcomes any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the VVC standard to submit them for an evaluation of their essentiality by MPEG LA’s patent experts and inclusion in the License if determined to be essential.

www.mpegla.com; accessadvance.com/

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