Hello all,
This is a letter from IIS I got today (I was also shipping a modified
version of the 8 Hz converter). I did the same thing as the 8Hz guys and
removed the executables.
Albert Faber
-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Sieler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: Henri Linde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tuesday, September 08, 1998 6:26 PM
Subject: MPEG Layer-3 - Possible infringement of our patents
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you may know, both the Fraunhofer Institute and THOMSON
have done important work to develop MPEG Layer-3 audio
compression (before and after it became part of the MPEG
standards). This work has resulted in many inventions and several
patents, covering the MPEG Layer-3 standard.
>From your publications and your web-site we learn that you
distribute and/or sell decoders and/or encoders that use the MPEG
Layer-3 standard.
Our files do not show that you have a valid license agreement with
us. This means that the products infringe the patent rights of
Fraunhofer and THOMSON.
To make, sell and/or distribute products using the standard and
thus our patents, you need to obtain a license under these patents
from us.
In the past, we have licensed several companies under different
models for different products, e.g.:
- Software encoder licenses against a per unit royalty starting
at $ 25,00 and decreasing for high volumes; and
- Pay-audio licenses against a royalty of $ 0,01 per song or
1 % of the selling price.
At least the Software encoder license seems to apply to your
products and we would appreciate if you could send us some more
details about your activities, in order to discuss what would be the
right royalty structure for your company.
In view of the above, we urge you to contact Henri Linde
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) and Martin Sieler
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) in order to start the discussion of the license
or licenses needed.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
- Martin
---
Martin Sieler
Fraunhofer IIS-A, Audio & Multimedia
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone: +49 9131 776-610
fax: +49 9131 776-699
www: http://www.iis.fhg.de/amm/
