Anupam Anand wrote: > can someone please put light on the mpeg-4 patent for me. does this > patent imply that people can not use any system that uses or produces > mpeg-4 in anyway.
Well, there's no single "mpeg-4 patent". There are several patents in quite a few countries that cover certain technologies which you need if you want to encode or decode MPEG-4. So in those countries you need a license under those patents if you want to make, use or sell (distribute) an MPEG-4 encoder or decoder. > also, it seems that philips is promoting mpeg-4 based systems. > basically, i am confused. i was about to get a webcast delivery system > made when i came across this "mpeg-4 patent" issue. MPEG licensing is not handled just by Philips. You should go to MPEG LA (licensing association) if you want more information, or if you want to obtain a license the easy way. http://www.mpegla.com/ Kind regards, Arnoud Engelfriet -- Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch patent attorney - Speaking only for myself Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/ -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3