HEVC Advance Pool Scores Huge Coup, Landing Samsung as Licensor, Licensee
HEVC Advance, the one-stop-shop patent pool to license technology under the H.265 platform (see 1504010051), scored the biggest coup in its two-year existence Wednesday when it announced landing Samsung as both a licensor and licensee.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
"Having the support of the largest consumer electronics company in the world, and a leader in innovation with one of largest and most important HEVC/H.265 patent portfolios, will help eliminate HEVC/H.265 IP barriers and further accelerate 4K UHD adoption -- a big win for consumers and all market participants," said HEVC Advance CEO Pete Moller in a statement. Unmentioned in the HEVC Advance announcement was Samsung’s status as the largest single H.265 licensor in the rival MPEG LA pool (see 1507220001). Samsung also belongs to MPEG LA’s H.265 patent pool as a licensee. MPEG LA spokesman Tom O’Reilly declined comment Wednesday.
About a year ago, HEVC Advance began making it known in private talks that it would allow licensors in the MPEG LA H.265 pool to hold membership in both pools if they want that option, under certain conditions that would prevent companies from collecting duplicate royalties on the same patents (see 1602100043). Moller emailed us Wednesday to confirm that Samsung is the first new HEVC Advance member to take advantage of that option.
Samsung's H.265 patents in the MPEG LA pool number several dozen, and Samsung will contribute those same patents to HEVC Advance as a licensor, Moller said: "And be aware that the way patent pools generally work is that all essential patents of the licensor are covered (existing and future). The list of patents that is made public reflects those essential patents that have been evaluated by the independent evaluator. And it’s this list that the licensing administrator uses to allocate the royalty distribution. So in the case of Samsung, all of its current and future essential patents are right now licensed." Moller estimates it will take six to 12 months before all of Samsung's existing patents complete HEVC Advance's "review process and are listed on our web-site," he said.
On the conditions of the dual-membership option that would prevent a licensor from collecting duplicate royalties on the same patents through two different pools, "we simplified our original thought process on this and went back to the standard ‘protocol,’" Moller said. "So, in the event of a licensee that was paying royalties to both the MPEG LA and HEVC Advance patent pools, we would expect that matter to be handled directly between the two companies just like any other situation in which a licensee was licensed to a licensor's patents either bilaterally or through multiple pools or otherwise," Moller said. "The exact methodology and details could vary depending on the circumstances, but often takes the form of reimbursement by the licensor to the licensee or what is known as pre-netting where a licensors share of royalties from a licensee is deducted from the licensee’s royalty payment by the pool administrator."
Moller's bottom line on Samsung's HEVC Advance membership is that "we do think this is a big positive and will help attract other major patent owners to HEVC Advance that are still on the sidelines and potentially others in the MPEG LA pool who would like to join us as well," he said. "Both of which will create more certainty concerning HEVC IP and help drive adoption. All a good thing."