New HEVC Patent Pool: What Are the Implications?
3月24日，HEVC提前，一家独立的授权管理公司宣布了一项新的 HEVC patent pool, in addition to the one being offered by MPEG LA. 在本文中，我们将确切地探讨这意味着什么以及其含义是什么.
为了收集这些信息，我采访了迈克·卡拉汉(Mike Callahan)，他是苹果公司产品营销高级总监 基本技术，首席技术官Shawn Carnahan Telestream皮特·莫勒来自 HEVC提前. 我还与其他几位知识渊博的行业专业人士进行了交谈，他们希望不公开. I sent requests for interviews to two of the companies in the new group, 杜比和特艺彩色, 但没有收到回复.
什么是HEVC提前?
HEVC提前是一个独立的授权管理者，形成了一个新的HEVC专利池. 发言人, 皮特·莫勒, is currently a managing director of IP Equality at GE, one of the five companies with IP rights listed in the HEVC提前 新闻稿.
在我们的谈话中, Moller stated the he's just a spokesperson. 尽管通用电气显然在某种程度上参与了这个组织的形成, Moller表示，HEVC提前正在过渡为一家独立实体，将独立拥有和管理.
在我看来，通用电气的支持，无论在何种程度上，都给了HEVC提前很大的分量. This isn't a group of dissatisfied patent owners corralled by an aggressive hustler; it's a huge company attempting to get more for their IP than they thought they could through the MPEG LA patent pool.
谁是小组成员?
The 新闻稿 states that, "The initial list of licensors is expected to include GE, 鲜艳的色彩, 杜比, 飞利浦, 和三菱电机." Given Moller's presence, GE is probably a given. The 新闻稿 also states, HEVC提前预计将吸引大量知识产权(IP)持有者, 预计将有超过500项重要专利在发布时获得许可, with the number of patents expected to grow significantly."
就其价值而言，在上述公司中，特艺是唯一一家发行债券的公司 新闻稿 关于这个问题.
What are the Royalty Terms?
条款没有披露。. 在我们的谈话中, Moller表示，该集团希望在2015年第二季度宣布总体条款，并在2015年第三季度开始提供许可.
Is the Formation of a New Group a Surprise?
Only if you weren't paying attention.
By way of background, when MPEG LA announced its HEVC池, I reported that there were multiple notable companies missing, including AT&T, 微软, 诺基亚, 和摩托罗拉, “HEVC最大的担忧之一是，关键的专利持有人会选择退出专利池, 迫使HEVC用户与多家公司签订多个许可协议.“因此，大多数已经授权或计划从MPEG LA授权HEVC的公司可能都希望从其他HEVC相关IP所有者那里得到消息.
As Elemental’s Callahan stated, “一般说来, quite a few unknowns remain across the broader HEVC patent, 许可证, 还有皇室景观. 这符合早期技术和市场典型的“抢地盘”心态."
To put this in perspective, the MPEG LA H.264 patent group included more than 4,000项专利, and as Telestream's Carnahan pointed out, there were still other companies asserting H.MPEG LA集团之外的264个相关知识产权，包括摩托罗拉，我将在下面讨论. 目前MPEG LA的参与者拥有大约500项专利(随着更多的专利被授予，这个数字将随着时间的推移而增长)。, while HEVC提前 states that they will have 500 at launch. So while HEVC won’t have the same number of patents as H.264(可能更多，也可能更少)，可能仍然有很多IP所有者在这两个阵营.
为什么 is Another HEVC Patent Pool Necessary?
It's all about the money (but you knew that).
Let me start by stating that the formation of another pool is a good thing; it will be more efficient for HEVC 许可证es to deal with an organized group than with individual IP owners. Groups also tend to produce more 合理的 proposals than individual IP owners, who sometimes overestimate the value of their technologies.
话虽如此, HEVC提前的每个人都有机会加入MPEG LA小组，但他们选择了放弃. 显而易见的动机是，他们认为与另一个团队合作可以赚得更多.
How Will HEVC提前’s Terms Differ from MPEG LA?
Since HEVC hasn't disclosed its terms yet, we can only speculate. 让我们来看看MPEG LA HEVC许可的条款，以了解一些知识产权所有者可能会觉得他们在桌子上留下了钱.
Here are the main points of the HEVC 许可证:
- 成本是0美元.20 /单位 for all 许可证d encoders and decoders
- There’s a de minimis exception for units under 100,000
- There’s an annual cap of US $25 million.
- There is no 许可证 on HEVC-encoded content (as there was for H.264和MPEG-2)
显然，MPEG LA的许可证旨在以尽可能低的管理成本获取最大的收入. That's not to point the finger at MPEG LA. These were the terms agreed to by the 25+ participants in the HEVC group; MPEG LA didn’t formulate them in a vacuum. Still, each major point reveals pretty specific 收入 opportunities.
License Fee and De Minimis Exception
本质上, 许可费用和最低限度的例外确保了从HEVC编码或HEVC编码文件中赚钱的多家公司永远不会向MPEG LA池支付一分钱. 这些包括:
- 编码公司销售的编码器价格从50美元到2.5万美元甚至更高
- Cloud encoding companies selling encoding services
- Companies creating multiple-server encoding farms to encode their own content.
Elemental和Telestream都认识到编码供应商在MPEG LA HEVC许可提案下获得了相当不错的交易. Certainly Elemental would be well under the 100,000 unit de minimis exception. 但即使不是，在目前的许可结构下，他们所欠的费用也微不足道.
Let's run a quick and dirty estimate. If you divide their estimated $50 million in 2014 收入 按硬件编码器的平均售价(25,000美元)计算，你可以得到2,000台. There’s some cloud and other 收入 included in the $50 million, 当然, so the unit estimate is probably high, 但即使它不是, 2,000 units translates to $400 in 收入 at $0.20 /单位.
Even if the royalty was 10 times higher—$2.从Elemental获得的净收益只有4000美元，可能不值其中的管理成本. 为什么2美元.00? While I picked this number out of the air, HEVC提前(或任何知识产权所有者)必须选择一个低于阈值的数字，以迫使受影响的群体提起诉讼. 为什么?
因为参与HEVC这样的标准的知识产权所有者授予的专利权必须是公平的, 合理的, 非歧视性的(弗兰德). And when assessing what is fair and 合理的, 法院将考虑MPEG LA等其他技术许可方评估的费率. 这是 发生了什么事 摩托罗拉和微软最终在法庭上决定了摩托罗拉H的弗兰德价值.264-related patent rights that 微软 was using. Specifically, the court considered MPEG LA’s H.264 许可证 fee to determine what was fair and 合理的.
相关文章
尽管对新专利集团宣布的版税有一些激烈的争论, the payments appear to be appropriate. We break it down with real-world numbers.
7月27日
Details are sparse about HEVC提前. The industry knew a second HEVC池 might form, but why do patent holders have a problem with MPEG LA?
2015年7月16日
HEVC的第二个专利池承诺上个月宣布许可条款和版税费率, but its press conference was cancelled at the last minute, and no 信息 has been made available.
2015年7月6日
Which delivers better quality, encoding time, and CPU performance—HEVC or VP9? We put them to the test to decide once and for all.
2015年4月28日
为什么机顶盒制造商要在家庭带宽连接不够稳定的情况下支持超高清视频呢?
2015年4月24日