谷歌的WebM面临专利挑战?

MPEG LA，组织持有MPEG-2和H.264 patent pools, has issued a request for patents surrounding Google's WebM VP8 codec.

MPEG LA announced a call for "patents essential to the VP8 video codec specification used to deliver video images" that constitutes the video portion of the WebM open-source video specification found at webmproject.org.

为了参与创造, 并确定许可条款, 联合VP8专利许可,MPEG LA在一份新闻稿中指出, "any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the VP8 video codec specification is invited to submit them for a determination of their essentiality by MPEG LA's patent evaluators.

MPEG LA has set an initial submission date of March 18, 2011. 期限很短, 大约一个月后, only addresses issued patents and at least one "essential patent" is necessary to participate.

Essential patents are those that a patent owner feels are essential to the specification, 如webmproject所列.org.

早在2010年6月，我们就解决了 issue Google的bsd类许可证, in which developers that use the open-sourced version of VP8 agree to indemnify Google from any infringement claim. The company has since then modified its license to match more closely to the BSD format, but the new version still retains the requirement to indemnify Google.

同时, MPEG LA表示对VP8的专利池感兴趣, but didn't move on patent pool formation for almost nine months.

In a June 2010 Digital Daily article by John Paczkowski, titled "Google's 'Royalty-Free' WebM Video May Not Be Royalty-Free for Long," MPEG LA CEO Larry Horn stated that "uncertainties in Google's licensing" may be of concern to developers.

"In view of the marketplace uncertainties regarding patent licensing needs for such technologies,霍恩说。, MPEG LA的首席执行官, "there have been expressions of interest from the market urging us to facilitate formation of licenses that would address the market's need for a convenient one-stop marketplace alternative to negotiating separate licenses with individual patent holders in accessing essential patent rights for VP8 as well as other codecs, 我们正在研究这样做的前景."

Timing on the most recent news around MPEG LA's new patent pool organization comes hot on the heels of Google's announcement to drop H.264原生支持Chrome浏览器. 微软最近也强调支持H.Chrome中的264 via a plug-in, a topic covered in another recent StreamingMedia article.

回到六月, we mentioned that Google's failure to address patent indemnification-or to at least release 信息 about its findings on the patents efficacy-could play into the hands of a patent pool.

In 2011, however, the company's still holding the stance that open-sourcing VP8 is all it needs to do, calling MPEG LA's patent pool formation announcement old news.

"MPEG LA has alluded to a VP8 pool since WebM launched-this is nothing new,谷歌在一封电子邮件声明中写道 寄存器 上周晚些时候. "The vast majority of the industry supports free and open development, and we're in the process of forming a broad coalition of hardware and software companies who commit to not assert any IP claims against WebM. We are firmly committed to the project and establishing an open codec for HTML5 video."

HTML5视频, Google的意思是HTML视频标签, as the term HTML5 is no longer valid according to its own employee, Ian Hickson, who recently stated "HTML is the new HTML5" on his blog post. Hickson is editor of the new HTML specification that contains the HTML video tag meant to eliminate reliance on plug-ins for video playback in a number of browsers.

MPEG LA，无论是虚伪的还是认真的，都告诉了我们 寄存器 它希望减少VP8的诉讼可能性.

"Patent owners are the ones who decide whether to enforce patents," the organization stated. "MPEG LA facilitates creation of a pool license that would reduce that likelihood. 如果是有利的, the availability of such license would help avoid the infringement actions by giving users the opportunity to be licensed under essential patents."