VIA-LA publishes patent lists for AAC and MPEG-H 3D Audio licensing pools

[kurkosdr]

Ok, I know I've posted a lot about patent-related issues on Doom9 recently, but this is actual news:

AAC patent list:
https://via-la.com/licensing-programs/aac/#patent-list
(note: this didn't exist even a month ago)

MPEG-H 3D Audio patent list:
https://via-la.com/licensing-program...h/#patent-list

This allows the assessment of the patent status of HE-AAC, which is often used alongside HEVC-encoded video (and sometimes alongside H.264-encoded video).

It also allows assessing the patent status of AAC-LC outside the US (note: when it comes to the US, an AAC-LC decoder and encoder have already been included in Fedora, so it can be assumed to be patent-free).

MPEG-H 3D Audio is not widely used, but I included it anyway for completeness' sake.

[oibaf]

What technologies are covered under the AAC patent licensing program?

The license encompasses AAC Low Complexity (AAC-LC), High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC, also sometimes known as aacPlus), MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2, xHE-AAC (Extended HE-AAC), and MPEG-D DRC (Dynamic Range Control). Also included in the license are patents essential to MPEG-4 AAC Scalable, MPEG-4 Low Delay AAC Profile (AAC-LD), MPEG-4 ER AAC ELD (AAC-ELD) and AAC-ELD v2.

[kurkosdr]

Originally Posted by oibaf

What technologies are covered under the AAC patent licensing program?

The license encompasses AAC Low Complexity (AAC-LC), High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC, also sometimes known as aacPlus), MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2, xHE-AAC (Extended HE-AAC), and MPEG-D DRC (Dynamic Range Control). Also included in the license are patents essential to MPEG-4 AAC Scalable, MPEG-4 Low Delay AAC Profile (AAC-LD), MPEG-4 ER AAC ELD (AAC-ELD) and AAC-ELD v2.

Yes, it's your typical "all versions of the standard in one single list" patent list from VIA-LA. That said, analysis can still happen based on priority dates.

This is information that wasn't public before (not as up-to-date anyway), so I wanted to share.

[oibaf]

Here it is all remaining patents with a priority date <= 2003-12-31 (it should cover up to HE-AAC v1 included - patents with unknown priority date are omitted) sorted by their expiration dates (on the first field; the second field is the priority date), according to Google Patents. The patent is clickable.

2025-12-01 : 2002-09-04 : US 7502743 : Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC
2025-12-08 : 2000-05-23 : BR PI0111362-3 : Coding Tech Ab, Coding Technologies Sweden Ab, Dolby Int Ab, Dolby Sweden Ab
2025-12-15 : 2003-10-02 : US 7447317 : Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung eV Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Ltd
2026-03-01 : 1999-01-27 : BR 122015007138-0 : Dolby Int Ab
2026-03-01 : 1999-01-27 : BR 122015007141-0 : Dolby Int Ab
2026-03-01 : 1999-01-27 : BR 122015007146-1 : Dolby Int Ab
2026-03-29 : 1999-01-27 : BR PI0009138-3 : Coding Tech Ab, Coding Technologies Sweden Ab, Dolby Int Ab, Dolby Sweden Ab
2026-04-26 : 1999-10-01 : BR PI0014642-0 : Coding Tech Ab, Coding Technologies Sweden Ab, Dolby Int Ab, Dolby Sweden Ab
2026-05-19 : 2003-10-02 : US 9462404 : Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung eV
2026-06-29 : 2001-07-10 : US 8014534 : Dolby International AB
2026-08-10 : 2002-09-18 : US 7577570 : Dolby International AB
2026-11-16 : 2002-04-10 : BR PI0308691-7 : Koninkl Philips Electronics Nv
2026-12-27 : 2003-09-30 : US 7756711 : Panasonic Intellectual Property Corp of America
2027-06-27 : 2002-07-12 : BR PI0305434-9 : Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
2027-07-04 : 2001-11-14 : BR PI0206395-6 : Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation Of America
2027-07-04 : 2002-04-22 : BR PI0304541-2 : Koninklijke Philips N. V.
2027-08-01 : 2002-04-22 : US 8340302 : Koninklijke Philips NV
2027-10-24 : 2001-07-10 : US 8116460 : Dolby International AB
2027-11-07 : 2002-08-01 : BR PI0305710-0 : Panasonic Corporation
2027-12-12 : 2002-04-22 : BR PI0304540-4 : Koninklijke Philips N. V
2027-12-12 : 2002-07-19 : BR PI0311601-8 : Nec Corporation
2027-12-27 : 2002-04-22 : US 7933415 : Koninklijke Philips NV
2028-01-09 : 2000-05-23 : BR 122015001401-8 : Dolby International Ab
2028-01-09 : 2000-05-23 : BR 122015001402-6 : Dolby International Ab
2028-02-14 : 2003-04-17 : BR PI0409327-5 : Koninkl Philips Electronics Nv
2028-05-08 : 2002-04-22 : BR PI0304542-0 : Koninklijke Philips Nv, Koninl Philips Electronics Nv
2028-06-12 : 2002-09-19 : BR PI0306434-4 : Nec Corp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, Panasonic Corp
2028-07-18 : 2003-10-23 : US 7949057 : Panasonic Corp
2028-08-28 : 2003-10-30 : BR PI0415951-9 : Koninkl Philips Electronics Nv
2028-12-09 : 2003-04-17 : US 8311809 : Koninklijke Philips NV
2028-12-26 : 2003-10-02 : BR PI0414757-0 : Fraunhofer Ges Forschung
2029-03-19 : 2003-10-02 : BR 122018069726-1 : Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V.
2029-03-19 : 2003-10-02 : BR 122018069728-8 : Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V.
2029-03-19 : 2003-10-02 : BR 122018069730-0 : Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V.
2029-03-19 : 2003-10-30 : BR 122018007834-0 : Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Dolby International Ab
2029-07-09 : 2003-10-02 : BR 122018069731-8 : Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V.
2035-05-23 : 2000-05-23 : BR 122015001400-0 : Dolby Int Ab

This post is not legal advice and may not be correct.

[kurkosdr]

Originally Posted by oibaf

Here it is all remaining patents with a priority date <= 2003-12-31 (it should cover up to HE-AAC v1 included - patents with unknown priority date are omitted) sorted by their expiration dates (on the first field; the second field is the priority date), according to Google Patents. The patent is clickable.

[...]

This post is not legal advice and may not be correct.

Since you have the script, can you also post a list of patents that have a known priority date <= 2003-12-31 but an unknown expiration date, and a list of patents that have both an unknown priority date and an unknown expiration date?

[oibaf]

Originally Posted by kurkosdr

list of patents that have a known priority date but an unknown expiration date

There are none with priority date <= 2003-12-31.

and the list of patents that have an unknown priority date and an unknown expiration date?

There are 1120 of them, it would require too many posts to list them all. They are mostly from countries where Google Patents doesn't have the data (or only for some patents, or my script is not perfect), here is a list:

AE AI AP AR BD BH BM BN CL CN CO EA EG FI FK GC GI HN ID IN JE KH KY LA LK MG MO MX MY NG NI PA PE PH PK QA SA SG TC TH UZ VN ZA ZN