MPEG-4 Audio
Submitting a Patent: MPEG-4 Audio

Any entity believing it has a valid patent essential to a normative part of the MPEG-4 Audio Standard: ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005 "Information Technology—Coding of audio-visual objects—Part 3: Audio:"; and/or the following amendments, ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005/Amd 1:2007, "Low delay AAC profile"; ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005/Amd 2:2006 "Audio Lossless Coding (ALS), new audio profiles and BSAC extensions"; ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005/Amd 3:2006, "Scalable Lossless Coding (SLS)"; is invited to submit its patent for determination of essentiality by an independent patent evaluator.

Patents are considered essential when they are determined to have at least one independent claim that would be necessarily and unavoidably infringed (in the absence of a license) by the practice of the MPEG-4 Audio Standard.

An evaluation fee of US $10,000 must accompany the submission of each patent, the patent's prosecution history, and copies of all references relied upon by the examining patent office. In addition, an initial submission must be accompanied by a signed letter indicating agreement with the terms and conditions governing the patent submission process.

If informed by the Independent Patent Evaluator that the submitted patent is essential to the MPEG-4 Audio Standard, the submitter is expected to participate in the MPEG-4 Audio Licensing Committee and the patent licensing pool. Such participation will require the payment of a membership fee to help defray the shared costs of the Licensing Committee.

Please contact Via Licensing at submissions@vialicensing.com to request a copy of the letter describing the submission procedures and the terms and conditions governing the submission of patents for essentiality determination in order to join the MPEG-4 Audio licensing program.