"Video Streaming Royalty Stack Best Left to Devices," say Economist

The Brattle Group determined in a recently released report the aggregate value of video streaming technologies is already taken into account through existing device based royalty rates. Brattle considered various video codecs, streaming protocols, content delivery networks, and media players while excluding other technologies like wireless and Internet protocols.

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The report follows the Club Goods economic theory, to determine viewers should pay a fixed fee irrespective of how much content is consumed. The value allocable to each patent holder should consider the substitutability of their patents and the component technology they cover.

Brattle determines a device-based royalty market has generated competition amongst various codecs, thus ensuring that innovation in this space remains vibrant and healthy while minimizing issues such as royalty stacking and double counting. Otherwise, they conclude there will be significant issues with a streaming-based royalty given so many different subscription models including ad based, annual, one-off live events, etc.  

The report was prepared for Unified Patents and is exclusively available to Unified Patents Video Codec Zone members. To join the Video Codec Zone or for more information on the Brattle report, please contact info@unifiedpatents.com.

Velos/Avanci video codec patent found invalid

On January 4, 2024, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,390,013, owned by Velos Media, an NPE. The '013 patent generally relates to encoding syntax elements that indicate tile information into a slice header. Velos Media patents have been identified as part of the Avanci Video patent pool, and Avanci asserts its pool covers AV1, H.265 (HEVC), H.266 (VVC), MPEG-DASH, and VP9 technologies.

Unified was represented by in-house counsel Jessica L.A. Marks and Michelle Aspen.

To view the reexamination request, visit Unified’s Portal: https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/exparte/90015239.

Ideahub HEVC patent held invalid

On February 5, 2024, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Ideahub Inc. holding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 11,122,274 unpatentable. The '274 patent generally relates to a video compression method for improving compression efficiency in directional intra-prediction. The patent has been designated essential to the Access Advance patent pool and this filing is part of Unified’s continued efforts in the SEP Video Codec Zone.

View district court litigation by Ideahub. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal.  Unified is represented by Raghav Bajaj and David McCombs of Hayes Boone, and by in-house counsel Roshan Mansinghani and Michelle Aspen.

InterDigital AV1 patent held invalid after appeal in China

The Beijing Intellectual Property Court confirmed the invalidity of all challenged claims of CN101491099, owned by Interdigital. The CN’099 patent was previously deemed essential in the SISVEL’s VP9 and AV1 pools.

Unified was represented by Tao Chen, Yu Yan, and Peter Zhang of the Beijing Wei Chixue Law Firm, and the case was managed by in-house counsel, Jessica L.A. Marks and Roshan Mansinghani.

VideoLabs MPEG patent claims invalidated

On December 18, 2023, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. VL Collective IP LLC holding challenged claims 1, 3, 5, 9, 12, 13, and 15 of U.S. Patent 8,605,794 unpatentable. Owned and asserted by VL Collective IP LLC, a VideoLabs Inc. entity, the '794 patent is generally directed to synchronizing data segments and references MPEG1.

View district court litigations by VL Collective IP. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified’s Portal. Unified was represented by Raghav Bajaj, Jon Bowser, and David McCombs of Haynes and Boone, LLP and by in-house counsel, Jessica L.A. Marks and Roshan Mansinghani.