MPEG LA Coming After Google's VP8 Video Codec

Is Google’s VP8 video codec free from patent liability? We’re about to find out. MPEG LA, the consortium that controls the AVC/H.264 video standard, issued a call for patents thought to be essential to VP8 today, a first step in the creation of a patent pool for the specification.

And an expected one too. MPEG LA CEO Larry Horn warned that this was coming. Here’s an excerpt from my conversation with him last May–the day after Google announced its WebM video format and release of the VP8 video codec as an open standard:

JP: Let me ask you this: Are you creating a patent pool license for VP8 and WebM? Have you been approached about creating one?

Larry Horn: Yes, in view of the marketplace uncertainties regarding patent licensing needs for such technologies, 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, and we are looking into the prospects of doing so.

Evidently, the prospects were pretty good, because the group is moving forward with the patent pool, and if it’s able to pull one together, Google’s royalty-free video standard may not be royalty-free for much longer. Which raises a few questions: If VP8 isn’t royalty-free, who’s going to foot the bill? And is Google willing to indemnify partners who opt to use it?

Anonymous

If you are not delivering ISO/IEC 14496 MPEG-4 H.264 to your viewers, you’re not delivering video. You can pretend you’re delivering video, but you are not.
Anonymous

MPEG themselves (not MPEG LA) have also issued a press release: “MPEG envisages royalty-free MPEG video coding standard” http://bit.ly/hFMdGd
KenG

I don’t think it’s safe to assume that there are patents that are infringed by VP8. I do think it’s safe to assume that MPEG-LA will do whatever it has to create FUD about a competitor to the codec that they want to get adopted as a de facto standard, so they can start charging licensing fees to companies that deliver h.264 video or sell h.264 encoders.

The first thing that has to happen is that companies who have patents for video compression need to look at the source code for VP8 to see if they believe it infringes their (usually unfairly granted) patent. If they think so, and want to sign up to be part of the MPEG-LA mob, then those parasites will examine the patent to see if they agree. If there are enough patent holders with protectable IP (and it’s not too old, as a lot of video compression technology patents should be expiring soon), then MPEG-LA will probably start suing sites that use VP8 to distribute video. Google may or may not join the legal battle, but without their legal might, very few small websites will be willing or able to fight MPEG-LA. So they might achieve their goal of stopping their competition the old fashioned way, with lawyers.

Please, don’t anyone give any grief about “protecting their investment in developing IP”. They all use all kinds of public domain knowledge to carve out a small niche that overwhelms underqualified patent examiners. This battle, just like all other software patents, is about using the obsolete patent system to extract undeserved rents.
Anonymous

Not fair. Google has the right to “borrow” stuff, that entire Android platform is built of that premise.

MPEG LA Coming After Google's VP8 Video Codec

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