I believe that the current status of mp3 is it is patent free in the US and most or all of the rest of the world. Analysis after the quoted portion.
On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 09:36:07 -0400, "Tom \"spot\" Callaway" wrote: > On Thu, 2007-11-01 at 10:47 +0300, Peter Lemenkov wrote: >> What about US? > > The Fraunhofer/Thomson patents have not expired in the US. > They are not willing to give us an unrestricted patent grant. > > US Patent 5559834 expires September 24, 2013 > US Patent 4942607 expires February 3, 2008 > US Patent 5812672 expires September 2, 2015 > US Patent 5579430 expires November 26, 2013 > US Patent 5321729 expires June 24, 2011 > US Patent 5706309 expires January 6, 2015 > US Patent 5227990 expires July 13, 2010 > US Patent 4821260 expires December 16, 2007 > US Patent 5214742 expires May 25, 2010 > US Patent 6185539 expires February 6, 2018 > US Patent 5703999 expires November 18, 2016 > US Patent 5924060 expires July 13, 2016 > US Patent 5701346 expires February 2, 2015 > US Patent 6009399 expires April 16, 2017 > US Patent 5384811 expires January 24, 2012 > US Patent 5736943 expires April 7, 2015 > US Patent 5742735 expires April 21, 2015 > US Patent 5455833 expires October 3, 2012 > > In addition, Alcatel-Lucent holds patents which may relate to MP3 and > MPEG encoding. This is still pending appeal (Alcatel-Lucent v > Microsoft). It is not clear whether they will give out an unstricted > patent grant. > > US Patent 5341457 expires Aug 20, 2013. > US Patent RE39,080 expires April 25, 2023. > > ~spot Here are the ones that either the analysis or mine think are still unexpired (I am assuming we can consider the rest expired): US Patent 5703999 expires November 18, 2016 -> December 30, 2014 US Patent RE39,080 expires April 25, 2023. -> May 6, 2014 US Patent 5924060 expires July 13, 2016 -> January 14, 2011 US Patent 6185539 expires February 6, 2018 -> February 19, 2017 US Patent 6009399 expires April 16, 2017 Here is why I think 5703999 is expired: Patent: 5703999 Filed: 18 nov 1996 Granted: 30 dec 1997 Expiration: 32 feb 2015 Summary: Process for reducing data in the transmission and/or storage of digital signals from several interdependent channels Notes: http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5703999 file+20: [2016, 11, 18] related_patent+20:[2015, 2, 32] Expiration date listed as November 18, 2016, but it is a continuation of a patent filed May 18, 1993. Expiration date should be 17 years from 1997, or Dec 30, 2014 Here is why I think RE39080 is expired: Patent: RE39080 Filed: 22 sep 1994 Granted: 06 may 1997 Expiration: 06 may 2014 Summary: Rate loop processor for perceptual encoder/decoder Notes: Reissue of 05627938 filed 13 aug 2002 granted 25 apr 2006 http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=RE39080 file+20: [2014, 9, 22] related_patent+20:[2008, 12, 32] grant+17:[2014, 5, 6] Expiration date listed as April 25, 2023. It is a refile of a continuation of a patent first filed in Dec 30, 1988. Original patent issued May 6, 1998, so expires 17 years or May 6, 2014. Here is why I think 5924060 is expired: Patent: 5924060 Filed: 20 mar 1997 Granted: 13 jul 1999 Expiration: 14 jan 2011 First Date: 14 jan 1991 Summary: Digital coding process for transmission or storage of acoustical signals by transforming of scanning values into spectral coefficients Notes: http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5924060 file+20: [2017, 3, 20] related_patent+20:[2011, 1, 14] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/650,896, filed on May 17, 1996, (now abandoned) which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/519,620, filed on Sep. 25, 1995, (now abandoned) which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/977,748, filed on Nov. 16, 1992, (now abandoned), which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/816,528, filed on Dec. 30, 1991, (now abandoned), which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/640,550, filed on Jan. 14, 1991, (now abandoned), which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/177,550, filed on Apr. 4, 1991, (now abandoned) as international application serial No. PCT/DE87/00384, filed Aug. 29, 1987, claiming priority to foreign appl. No. P3629434.9, filed Aug. 29, 1986. Expiration date is listed as July 13, 2016, but it is a continuation of a patent filed 1991 and it was continued after 1996, so it expires 20 years after the first file date, or January 14, 2011 That leaves US PATENT 6185539: http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6185539 and US PATENT 6009399 http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6009399 First of all, these were both filed in 1997. Since the Final MPEG-1 specification (as ISO/IEC 11172-3) was published in August 1993 the patents were filed well past the August 1994 cut off date. Secondly, looking at the claims, (and I am not a lawyer) 6,185,539 seems to be discussion MPEG-2, and 6,009,399 seems to be discussing an encoding optimization compared to standard MPEG-1. If you are wondering how likely it is that there are other patents on MP3, I believe it is unlikely. Because of the age of the MP3 specification (22 years for the final version and 25 years after the publicly available draft), it is increasingly unlikely that any patents still exist for for it. Before 1995 in the United States, patents could be continued, but for those it would probably would take about 3 years for the patent to be granted, and then it would have a 17 year term from the grant date, which means it would expire by 2015. Current patent law in the United States and the European Union is 20 years after the filing date (with some exceptions if the patent office processing is delayed), so again, ones filed before the MP3 specification was published are generally going to be expired. I contacted Technicolor ( http://www.mp3licensing.com/ ) which licenses MP3 patents and asked if patent licensing was still needed for encoding and decoding MP3s. They replied but did not answer that question and stated that they do not license end users or individuals. I did tell them when I believed the MP3 patents expired and that I would be publishing my conclusions. My previous article on mp3 expiration listed MP3 as patent free on September 22, 2015: http://www.osnews.com/story/24954/US_Patent_Expiration_for_MP3_MPEG-2_H_264 So as I stated above, I am fairly certain that MP3 encoding and decoding is now patent free. Josh Cogliati
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