MPEG-4 Audio Licensing Committee Selects Via Licensing Corporation as Administrator
Members of the MPEG-4 Audio Licensing Committee have announced theselection of Via Licensing Corporation as the licensing administratorfor the MPEG-4 Audio patent pool. This development will hasten theavailability of standard licensing agreements for patents essential toMPEG-4 Audio technologies.
MPEG Audio technologies are familiar to users around the world.MPEG-1 Layer 3, otherwise known as MP3, provides an excellent exampleof the value of an open and interoperable standard in the creation ofnew applications and markets.
The most recent MPEG standard, MPEG-4, doesn’t define a singleaudio coding scheme, but rather a rich set of technologies addressing arange of different applications and covering a spectrum of bit rate,scalability, and audio quality requirements. The goal of the MPEG-4Audio Licensing Committee is to provide one-stop access to patents frommultiple parties that are necessary for the practice of MPEG-4 Audiounder fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory conditions.
The MPEG-4 Audio standard is organized so that various audio tools,or coding approaches, are assembled into audio "objects" that arefurther combined into multiple MPEG-4 Audio Profiles. The work of theMPEG-4 Audio Licensing Committee was initiated by the MPEG-4 IndustryForum (M4IF) with a request that patent holders develop licensing termsfor three MPEG-4 Audio Profiles: the High Quality Audio Profile, theSpeech Audio Profile, and the Mobile Audio Internetworking(“MAUI”) Profile.
In addition to these three profiles, members of the LicensingCommittee are working with Via Licensing Corporation to createessential patent license agreements for those audio objects that are ofinterest to the market on a standalone basis.
According to Ramzi Haidamus, general manager, Via LicensingCorporation, “The MPEG-4 Audio standard is quite complex andstill evolving today. Numerous industries look to MPEG for fundamentalmedia technologies, and our aim is to provide access to the technologyin those combinations that are sought by its users. As the standardevolves and the market’s understanding of the technology matures,Via Licensing will remain responsive to the needs of both licensees andlicensors in developing patent license packages that make businesssense.”
The specific technologies comprising the MPEG-4 Audio Profiles to becovered by the initial licenses are:
·Speech Audio Profile: CELP, HVXC, TTSI
·High Quality Audio Profile: AAC LC, AAC LTP, AAC Scalable, CELP,ER AAC LC, ER AAC LTP, ER AAC Scalable, ER CELP
·Mobile Audio Internetworking Profile: ER AAC LC, ER AACScalable, ER TwinVQ, ER BSAC, ER AAC LD
Member companies of the MPEG-4 Audio Licensing Committee ownessential patents in these MPEG-4 Audio Profiles. The members includeAT&T, Dolby Laboratories, Electronics and TelecommunicationsResearch Institute (ETRI), France Télécom, Fraunhofer IIS,Fujitsu Limited, NEC Corporation, Nokia Corporation, Nippon Telegraphand Telephone Corporation (NTT), Philips Electronics, SamsungElectronics Co., Ltd., Sony Corporation, and VoiceAge Corporation.These companies have been meeting over the course of the past year inorder to develop licensing models and terms and conditions for accessto essential MPEG-4 Audio patent rights.
The Licensing Committee expects to deliver MPEG-4 Audio Profilelicense agreements in the first quarter of 2003.
For more information about MPEG-4 Audio, please visit the ViaLicensing Corporation website at www.vialicensing.com or contact info@vialicensing.com.
About MPEG-4 Audio
The MPEG-4 Audio standard consists of a variety of audio codingtechnologies ranging from speech coding (HVXC, CELP), general audiocoding (AAC, TwinVQ, BSAC), a Text-To-Speech Interface (TTSI), andnumerous additional audio synthesis and coding techniques. MPEG-4 AudioProfiles define combinations of these audio tools aimed at particularapplication targets. Further information about MPEG-4 can be found atthe MPEG website, mpeg.telecomitalialab.com,and at the website of the MPEG-4 Industry Forum, www.m4if.org.
About Via Licensing Corporation
Via Licensing Corporation, a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, developsand administers patent licensing programs or patent pools on behalf ofinnovative technology companies. Though functionally independent ofDolby’s other operations, Via Licensing benefits from thetechnical expertise and strategic business relationships that Dolby hasdeveloped in more than 30 years of licensing into the consumerelectronics and personal computing markets. Based in San Francisco, ViaLicensing’s staff includes experts in intellectual property law,technology standardization, strategic business development, and programadministration. Affiliated specialists in the fields of finance,antitrust law, and patent analysis complete the set of capabilitiesthat make Via Licensing a premier service provider to companies andorganizations seeking patent licensing administration services.
