Option 3

would be to admit that, while the "patent the hell out of the algorithms and license the crap" business model led to some short-term monetary gains, it reached a dead end as soon as the first NPE showed up and acquired a patent that blocked further progress.

So, Mr. MPEG, just admit that there is no more money to be gained (and progress to be achieved) that way, and deed the patents to the public before they expire on their own.

In any case, it's instructive to look at the audio world. MP3 and AAC are how old exactly? We now have Vorbis (better than MP3) and Opus (better than all the others), plus an MP3 encoder that semi-legally became the best of the bunch, precisely because it was open sourced and people could actually build upon the work of others instead of re-inventing wheels.

Enough said.