Friday, March 8, 2013

Blog #12: Patent Clouds Remain over V8

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/patent-clouds-remain-over-vp8-google.html


Patent clouds remain over VP8: Google points to FRAND option, Nokia alleges infringement in court


This article discusses how MPEG LA just made a patent license agreement with Google in relation to their VP8 video codec. However, this is all not good news. A Google employee posted to the IETF brings up the issue with Nokia and other patent infringements. Nokia claimed to a German court in their case against HTC that VP8 still violates claim 46. This claim states: apparatus and method for compressing a motion vector field. This article also notes that Nokia holds many other patents on video compression technologies. 

I feel this case sums up our current patent environment. A lot of companies are battling with each other and realizing that licensing of other companies' patents is not only helpful but critical. It is well known that if you lose a case it will cost a very significant amount, a lot less than it would cost to license it. I think this environment  is conducive to more companies working together to deal with the patent system and end the patent wars, especially in mobile tech. 

Hopefully this will lead to a better and more innovative economy. 


Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doR7PctQH4c


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