Linux kernel 5. Windows Do these 11 things immediately. Top 5 things to do about your tech before you die. If you're not using a kanban board, you're not as productive as you could be. Comment and share: MPEG-2 patent expiration opens door for royalty-free use.
Show Comments. ESP Wiki is looking for moderators and active contributors! Namespaces Page Discussion. Page actions View View source History More. For the general video codec problem see: Audio-video patents MPEG LA is an organisation which could be called a patent cartel which holds a collection of software patents which it claims are essential for the implementation of MPEG video formats including H.
In view of the marketplace uncertainties regarding patent licensing needs for such technologies, [ Categories : Organisations Pages with advice for avoiding patented ideas Example software patents. A motion vector is determined for each of the picture blocks in the first picture region.
The coding information of the picture blocks, the motion vectors and the overall motion vector are coded. A configuration for coding a digitized picture and a configuration for decoding a compressed picture are also provided. Expiration dates were determined by User:Haji 3 who has been right about these so far, the last 2 patents expire in Exactly what sort of license if any would be required is unclear. But using an unfree format goes against some core principles, so we should forget about this.
You need Legal and developers to work together to figure this out. Complicated and expensive, but the result could be worthwhile. It could allow MPEG-4 Visual to become a free format over a year before the last patent expires by investigating two patents. Part of this could be to force-disable certain features in a modern encoder.
Perhaps an interesting option. By using software that was published before the "earliest publication date", it should be certain that the software can't be using any method as described by the patent. If it does , that would invalidate the patent. The two patents that expire in are 7,, from Siemens and 6,, from Philips. The earliest publication date for the Siemens patent is For some standards, the patent owners have released their patent rights and allow anyone to implement the standard using the patents without infringement.
An example of this is the Theora video compression standard where On2 has licensed their patents. To invent an example, say you make a Fortran 66 compiler that will take a MPEG-2 video, decode it and look for fortran code and compile that code.
Despite the fact that you could make a Fortran 66 compiler without infringing any valid and unexpired patents, this bizarre implementation would infringe on any MPEG-2 patents. That is many more patents than I want to look at. Smarter searches could reduce this number based on other criteria such as filing date, but still most searches for patents will quickly return more patents than anyone can handle. On the other hand, companies that claim that their patents cover a standard and then ask for licensing fees have a bias to try and claim that they own as many essential patents as possible.
In my spot checks, it looks like some of the patents that companies are claiming cover the standard are essential, and some look like they only cover possible implementations of the standard. Because of this method of search, two types of errors exist, errors of including patents that are not required for implementing the standard and missing patents that are required for implementing the standard.
As stated before, there are two different patent terms. It used to be that US patent terms lasted 17 years from the grant date. After the Uruguay Round Agreements Act the term was switched to 20 years plus any term adjustments from the first filing date. Patents that had already been filed get the longer of the 17 year or 20 year term which ever term would make the patent expire last. Therefore determing the patent term requires determining the earliest filing date, determing whether a 17 year term could apply and if it could, finding the grant date.
Finding the grant date is simple, it is on the patent. Finding the earliest filing date can get tricky however because of international patents, patent continuations, patent divisions and reissued patents. If the patent is a continuation or division of a previous patent, then the filing date is from the earliest continuation or division.
If the patent is a reissed patent, then the earliest filing date on the original patent needs to be determined. The earliest filing date is also the one that counts for determining prior art. In the US, the prior art needs to have been available to the public one year before the earliest filing date. Determining whether a 17 year patent term could apply requires looking at the filing date and the PCT filing date.
Patents filed before June 8, last the longer of 20 years from the filing date or 17 years from the grant date. If a patent is continued or divided, then the new filing date is the key one, not the earliest filing date so a patent can loose the ability to have a 17 year term, though the earliest filing date stays the same. I think that if a PCT patent has a continuation or division, the date for determining if a 17 year patent is available will change, but I am not sure see [1] and [2].
If the patent takes too long going through the patent office, a patent term adjustment can be added, which increases the 20 year term.
Patents can expire early if the renewal fees are not payed. Simple one first: US It has no patent term adjustment. It is filed after June 8, , so the term is just 20 years from the filing date, or 16 Apr Two possible terms: US It is filed before June 8, , so term is longer of 17 years from grant date, or 20 years from filing date.
PCT Filed: 02 nov No related US Application data and no patent term adjustment. It is filed before June 8, , so term longer of 17 years from grant date, or 20 years from earliest filing date. Since this is a PCT application, the earliest filing date is 2 Nov , so the 20 year term is until 2 Nov The 17 year term ends on 6 Jan , which is later so the the expiration is 6 Jan Continuation Example: US No PCT, and no patent term adjustment.
Since this is a continuation, the earliest file date is 24 Jun , so the 20 year term ends on 24 Jun The 17 year term ends 14 Jun , so the later of those is the expiration date of 24 June Term Extension Example: US No PCT.
Patent term adjustment of days. Since this is a division, the earliest file date is 5 Sep The 20 year term should end on 5 Sep , but because of the patent term adjustment of over 4 years, it instead expires on 29 Nov Filed: 22 sep Granted: 06 may Continuation of Ser.
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