MPEG LA and ULDAGE reach historic agreement

DENVER, USA: World's leading patent pool licensing administrator MPEG LA, LLC, and Japanese patent pool administrator ULDAGE Inc. announced a cooperation under which ULDAGE will offer MPEG LA’s MPEG-2 Systems License along with ULDAGE’s ARIB license to companies based in Japan that sell mobile TV handsets for Japan’s One-Seg mobile terrestrial broadcasting service.

One-Seg mobile TV handsets use both the Transport Layer of the MPEG-2 Systems Standard covered by MPEG LA’s MPEG-2 Systems License and the ARIB One-Seg digital broadcast standard covered by ULDAGE’s ARIB License. Therefore, One-Seg handset manufacturers need coverage under patents essential to both standards and would benefit from both licenses.

"This collaboration marks two firsts," said MPEG LA President and CEO Larry Horn. "It is the first time that two joint licensing administrators have joined forces. It is also the first time that a joint license has been offered covering patents essential to multiple standards utilized in a single product.

"We are especially thrilled to be able to do this with ULDAGE, whom we hold in the highest regard for its successful licensing of the Japanese market. We share a rich history and common values serving our customers and the market with licensing products of increasing convenience.”

"Doing this venture with MPEG LA holds special significance for us," said ULDAGE President and CEO Yoshihide Nakamura. "MPEG LA ushered in the age of patent pool licensing bringing new efficiencies to the patent licensing market. Now together we usher in the age of product licensing. In response to market demand, through the co-operative effort of our companies each representing the gold standard in joint licensing, we are bringing new licensing products to market that will benefit the industry and its consumers."

One-Seg is a mobile terrestrial digital audio, video and data broadcasting service used in Japan. ULDAGE’s ARIB Essential Patent License provides a license under Japanese Digital Broadcasting Standards including One-Seg that were developed by the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (“ARIB”).

The MPEG-2 Systems Standard defines how to format the various components of multiplexer programs and combine them into a single program or transport stream. Where the standard is used without licensed MPEG-2 video encoders or decoders, such as in One-Seg handset and other mobile television and audio receivers and certain set-top boxes and cameras, MPEG LA’s MPEG-2 Systems Patent Portfolio License provides coverage under essential patents.