Market ‘Ultimately Determines’ Best Patent Pool, MPEG LA Says of HEVC Advance

The market, not the patent pool, “ultimately determines” whether a patent pool strikes a “fair balance” between patent holders and patent users, and “reasonable royalties are key,” an MPEG LA spokesman emailed us. He was responding to HEVC Advance’s disclosure Wednesday of its patent pool royalty and pricing terms (see 1507220001) that were multitiered and much more expensive than what the MPEG LA patent pool charges for the use of the HEVC codec. Like the other patent pools that MPEG LA runs, the MPEG LA spokesman said, the goal of its HEVC patent pool “is to incorporate as much essential intellectual property as possible under one license for the benefit of the marketplace.” Participating licensees and patent holders “are required for a pool license to be widely accepted,” and to “achieve wide acceptance, both must receive value,” the MPEG LA spokesman said. “Patent holders must receive value in order to be willing to make their valuable intellectual property widely available under a pool license, and licensees must receive value in order to be willing to pay for its use.” MPEG LA manages licensing programs with 10,000 patents in 80 countries with 200 patent holders and 6,000 licensees, the representative said.