HEVC patent pools cannabalizing each other

[foxyshadis]

From an unrelated thread, I saw this news item (www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/News/Online-Video-News/Unified-Patents-Challenges-Velos-Media-Patent-128870.aspx): For the first time, HEVC licensees are turning on each other with an IPR. It should have happened ages ago, but I wonder if it'll cascade into a number of counter IPRs and suits.

If the end result is that current patents are invalidated and the next generation remembers why a single patent pool was created in the first place, maybe it won't be so bad. That, or we end up hoping AV1 can create some kind of traction.

[iwod]

I think I have given up hope of HEVC, for most part AVC HP is doing great.

The single patents pool, Which is precisely what they are trying to do with VVC / H.266, there are people dealing with the business side of things now along side with the Standard body trying to achieve its goal.

I am still hoping with VVC, we could have free software encoder and decoder ( so essentially the availability of the codec is only limited by your CPU power ) and only charging for Hardware Accelerator, with a per unit cost and no cap.

[TomV]

The title is wrong. Unified Patents isn't a patent pool. They provide a service to help tech companies minimize the potential cost and risk of patent licensing, especially from non-practicing entities (NPEs, or trolls), but also from unreasonable patent owners of all kinds. They have a new Video Codec Zone, which is dealing exclusively with the problems associated with HEVC patent licensing.