Does anyone else remember reading a web page that said (I'm paraphrasing
here)...
"...the patents are our way of enforcing conformity to the standard. As long
as the encoder produces conforming bitstreams, we do not plan to enforce our
patent rights..."
All I can find now is a long, complex document about what the licensing
terms are, and how much money they expect to make on each encoder.
Albert Faber wrote:
> 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/
>
