How does the MPEG process work regarding Intellectual Property and patents?

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How does the MPEG process work regarding Intellectual Property and patents?

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Byclaudio
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Background

MPEG conforms with the ISO/IEC/ITU common patent policy which is set out in the ISO/IEC Directives (latest edition is version 5 dated 2004) and in Clause 2.14 of Part 1 and Annex F of Part 2. The Directives can be accessed at the ISO site.

In order to include a piece of technology in an ISO Standard the directive requires that:

  • “the patent holder is willing to negotiate licenses free of charge with other parties on a nondiscriminatory basis on reasonable terms and conditions. Such negotiations are left to the parties concerned and are performed outside ITU-T/ITU-R/ISO/IEC”

OR

  • “the patent holder is willing to negotiate licenses with other parties on a non-discriminatory basis on reasonable terms and conditions. Such negotiations are left to the parties concerned and are performed outside ITU-T/ITU-R/ISO/IEC.”

If a patent holder is not willing to comply with one of the two options above, the Standard shall not include provisions depending on the patent.

Call for proposals

When MPEG issues a Call for Proposals they advise submitters that they will need to comply with the ISO/IEC Intellectual Property Rights Policy.

Patent statement and licensing declarations

As standards are developed, organizations with patented technology which is included in the specification are invited to provide Patent Statement and Licensing Declarations to the ISO and IEC Central Office. The form for making such a declaration is available from the ISO web site.

Patent Database

ISO maintains a database in which they provide entries for all Patent statement and Licensing Declarations received by ISO and IEC Central Offices. This database can be accessed at the ISO web site.

Licensing technology included in MPEG standards

Various MPEG standards have benefited from the existence of patent pools where organizations wishing to license technology included in such standards can negotiate a single license covering all the essential patents identified by those organizations which administer the patent pools.

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