Via Licensing Announces Patent Licensing Terms for MHP and OCAP

In a press release issued in San Francisco yesterday, Via Licensing Corporation announced the availability of financial license terms for patents essential for implementations of the MHP 1.0 and OCAP⢠1.0 standards. Joint patent licenses are expected to be available by Q4 this year.

The full text of the release is as follows:

San Francisco, July 13, 2005âVia Licensing Corporation is pleased to announce the availability of financial license terms for patents essential for implementations of the Digital Video Broadcasting Multimedia Home Platform 1.0 (MHP 1.0), and CableLabs® OpenCable⢠Applications Platform (OCAP⢠1.0) standards. Companies participating in meetings with Via Licensing regarding each technology standard licensing program have each had patents independently determined to be essential to the implementation of that standard.

The patent licenses for MHP 1.0 and OCAP 1.0 will be offered separately and will better enable and encourage adoption of the standards by streamlining the process and reducing the overall cost of obtaining the necessary licenses for both device manufacturers and service providers. Patent holders including Comcast, OpenTV, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.), Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Thomson, and Time Warner Cable are currently discussing the final license documents.

The financial terms are available at www.vialicensing.com under the Licensing Programs menu. The goal of the participating companies is to have a patent license agreement available to interested device manufacturers and service providers by the end of the fourth quarter of 2005. Device manufacturers and service providers are each required to obtain separate patent licenses from the pool, with manufacturers making payments based on the number of devices manufactured and service providers making payments based on the number of subscribers that their service reaches.

The marketplace benefits from the participation of as many patent owners as possible, through the inclusion of more intellectual property in the license and by the participation of more parties in development of the terms of the licensing program. Via Licensing continues to welcome the participation of additional parties that hold patents essential to the practice of the MHP 1.0 (ETSI TS101812) or OCAP 1.0 (SCTE OC-SP-OCAP1.0) standards. Parties holding patents they believe are necessarily infringed by the practice of these standards, and who are interested in participating in the development of the licensing program, should immediately request information by sending an email to submissions@vialicensing.com.

The license fees collected from the MHP and OCAP licensing programs will be allocated among the pool members based upon a predetermined formula approved by all pool members.

Media Contact:
Adam Anderson
+1 415 645 5176
adam.a@vialicensing.com