GE and Ericsson join fees hunt for Google’s ‘royalty-free’ tech
Companies including Ericsson and General Electric have joined a major video-coding licensing platform, which seeks to collect royalties from smartphone and tablet manufacturers using the technology.
According to Sisvel, operator of the platform, the patents relate to the VP9 and AV1 video codecs, which are commonly used in video streaming devices such as smartphones, TVs, and computers.
The platform is made up of two separate patent pools covering VP9 and AV1.
The formats were originally developed by Google (VP9), and the Alliance for Open Media (AV1), a consortium of technology companies including Facebook, Mozilla, Samsung, and Netflix.
Google and the Alliance have made the formats royalty-free for use in these devices, but members of the Sisvel patent pools say the formats are built partly on their patented technology, and now want to start charging a fee.
Sisvel’s CEO Mattia Fogliacco says the platform will look to begin licensing negotiations with manufacturers in the next month.
“One of the worries I had, when we launched the platform, was that patent owners and Sisvel would be blamed for charging royalties,” Fogliacco told WIPR.
“But we did not have any say in choosing which patented technologies are used in the VP9 and AV1 formats,” he added.
Fogliacco said he is confident that their offer is fair and accessible to the market.
“I am sure that whoever looks at the licence offer we are putting on the table will see that it is intended to endorse adoption of the technology,” he said.
The pools were initially formed a year ago, by companies including Orange, Toshiba, and Philips. Fogliacco said Sisvel decided to spend that time investigating the strength of the patents rather than begin licensing negotiations straight away.
The other new members of the patent pools include Dolby, InterDigital, and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. According to Sisvel, the platform includes more than 650 patents for VP9 and more than 1,050 for AV1.
The size of the two pools reflects the number of patents that have so far been third-party accredited by attorneys as being used in the video codec formats, the Sisvel CEO added.
“We created a platform as a one-stop-shop; so that there’s a transparent and efficient way to access all of the patents,” Fogliacco said.
Fogliacco said the number of patents will eventually stand at 1,000 for VP9 and 2,000 for AV1.
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