Technicolor Broke With HEVC Advance Because It Opposes Its Royalties

The HEVC Advance patent pool for H.265 technology put a brave face on founding member Technicolor's withdrawal from the group to license its H.265 patent portfolio directly to device makers. Technicolor believes doing so will “accelerate adoption” of the H.265 standard, the company said in a Wednesday statement. Contrary to an HEVC Advance statement that Technicolor’s recent acquisition of Cisco’s connected device business had direct bearing on its decision to withdraw, that wasn’t the case, a Technicolor spokesman emailed us Thursday. “Our decision to pursue direct licensing is mostly related” to the fact that “we do not support some decisions of the pool -- such as licensing content streaming,” he said. Moreover, "we initially thought that establishing a pool would help to avoid fragmentation," he said. "However, this has not been the case.” Since Dolby Labs, General Electric, Mitsubishi, Philips and Technicolor formed HEVC Advance in March (see 1504010051), “various players have delayed adoption of HEVC technologies and redirected their investment into alternative technologies,” Technicolor said in its withdrawal statement. “However, HEVC is today the best video compression technology to meet industry needs." HEVC Advance's statement said Technicolor's “acquisition of Cisco's set-top box business and their recent changes in management” appear to have made “bilateral licensing” a “better fit for Technicolor's current business dynamics.” That referred “primarily” to the recent departure of Stephane Rougeot, “who previously oversaw Technicolor's involvement with HEVC Advance,” Pete Moller, the patent pool’s CEO, emailed us.