HEVC Advance Patent Pool: Licensor Terms and Obligations

General Terms

  • Licensors are members of the Administrative Committee (AdCom) and agree to cooperate in good faith with the Licensing Administrator to enable the Licensing Administrator to carry out its obligations in regard to the HEVC Advance pool.
  • Licensors that make and/or sell HEVC Products which fall within the terms of the HEVC Advance PPL must be Licensees.
  • Initial Licensor term continues until the end of 1st License renewal term (i.e., 12/31/2030 for new Licensors). This provides predictability for Licensees and Licensors.
  • Licensors have obligation, upon request by an implementer, to offer bilateral licenses on reasonable terms, and to negotiate in good faith with the implementer.
  • Licensors agree to maintain confidentiality of the business discussions of the HEVC Advance pool.
  • New Licensors are added at the reasonable discretion of the Licensing Administrator.

License Scope and Grant

  • The PPL grant is to infringed patent claims that are essential to any of Versions 1 through 7 of the HEVC Standard:
    • “HEVC Standard” – means (a) all versions through Version 7 of ISO/IEC 23008-2 MPEG-H Part 2 and ITU-T Recommendation H.265; and (b) such other profiles, extensions and versions thereof, and new standards separated therefrom (e.g., SEI messaging), as are adopted by the applicable standards setting organization(s) and explicitly added to this definition upon written notice by Licensing Administrator.
  • Amendments to the definition of the HEVC Standard, and therefore to the scope of the PPL license grant, are approved upon Licensing Administrator’s recommendation unless vetoed by the AdCom.
  • Licensors grant the Licensing Administrator a non-exclusive license to all their essential HEVC patent claims they have the right to license, with the right to grant sublicenses under the HEVC Advance PPL.

Patent Evaluations

  • Licensors must submit their HEVC patents to an independent Patent Evaluator to determine whether they include at least one claim that is essential to the HEVC Standard.
  • When the Patent Evaluator determines a Licensor’s patent is an HEVC Standard Essential Patent (“SEP”), it is added to the HEVC Advance Patent List.
  • Points are assigned to HEVC SEPs on the patent list; the assignment of points are subject to limits on how many points any patent family (with a common priority application) can accrue.