H.264, patent licensing, and you (Engadget)
H.264, patent licensing, and you (Engadget)
Posted May 5, 2010 22:56 UTC (Wed) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330)Parent article: H.264, patent licensing, and you (Engadget)
If you sign up with MPEG-LA and follow their rules, then you don't have to be worried about lawsuits because of patents in their patent pool. But Theora is designed not to infringe any of the patents in that pool, so the main danger to Theora would be over some other patent not in that pool. But if such a patent exists, then H.264 might also infringe it, and then you're unsafe with either technology.
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Now, it might be possible that the Theora people didn't do the job correctly, and there is some patent that is part of the MPEG-LA pool that they infringe. But that's a finite set of patents that could be checked for such a possibility. Other than that, what am I missing?
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But there could be lurking patent trolls out there seeking a much bigger target: all those who use H.264. After all, Alcatel dug out a patent to go after MP3 users at a very late date, including those (like Microsoft) who were fully paid up members of the MP3 patent consortium. (Alcatel ended up losing only after years in the courts).
<p>
Now, it might be possible that the Theora people didn't do the job correctly, and there is some patent that is part of the MPEG-LA pool that they infringe. But that's a finite set of patents that could be checked for such a possibility. Other than that, what am I missing?
<p>
But there could be lurking patent trolls out there seeking a much bigger target: all those who use H.264. After all, Alcatel dug out a patent to go after MP3 users at a very late date, including those (like Microsoft) who were fully paid up members of the MP3 patent consortium. (Alcatel ended up losing only after years in the courts).