The MPEG-4 Systems license paves the way for the likes of RealNetworks Inc to add MPEG-4 support to internet streaming media servers, whereas a previously Visual license covered, for example, end user playback offerings.
MPEG-LA said the license allows for fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to patent rights covering the MPEG-4 spec. Several types of system are covered, with royalties uniformly $0.15 per decoder and $0.25 per encoder, with a $100,000 annual cap per legal entity.
Beneficiaries of the royalties include patent holders Apple Computer Inc, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), France Telecom SA, Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and Sun Microsystems Inc.
The license covers MPEG-4 systems products created from January 1, 2000 onwards, but companies that sign up to a license by August 4 this year will have all royalties on existing products waived through December 31 2003.
Source: Computerwire
