[M4IF Discuss] Results M4IF Fairfax Meeting

[Rob Koenen]

M4IF Members and MPEG-4 Watchers,
Our meeting yesterday in Fairfax was an interesting event, as one 
can expect from a meeting that discusses issues surrounding MPEG-4 
licensing. Decisions on licensing were of course not taken, as
M4IF is not responsible for such terms. I do expect, however, that
the open discussion between licensors, their representatives and
potential licensees will result in a better mutual understanding of 
the situation and an even greater sense of urgency among licensors
than already existed.
Below are the resolutions of the meeting. My notes taken during the 
discussion will be posted on our website shortly, together with 
these resolutions (http://www.m4if.org; see under M4IF News).
I apologize for any duplication in emails caused by the wide 
distribution of this email, but I consider this important 
information for all involved with MPEG-4.
Kind Regards,
Rob Koenen,
President, M4IF
______________________________________________________________________
Meeting 	9th M4IF meeting, Fairfax, VA, USA, May 2002
Document:	m4-out-20017
Source: 	Plenary Meeting
Title: 	Resolutions of the 9th (Fairfax) MPEG-4 Industry Forum 
		Meeting
Status:	Final
Purpose:	Output of meeting
Resolutions of the 9th (Fairfax) Special MPEG-4 Industry Forum meeting 
on Licensing
1.	M4IF, noting that it is now 3.5 years after MPEG-4 Version 1 was 
	approved by WG11, urges the licensors to come with licensing 
	terms within a matter of weeks.
2.	M4IF notes that there is much concern of what the market 
	understands to be the proposed licensing scheme for notably 
	MPEG-4 Visual, and urges licensors to listen to and address 
	these concerns.
3.	M4IF urges parties that wish to use MPEG-4, but do not like the 
	proposed licensing terms, to engage in a discussion with the 
	licensors through their representatives:
	*	MPEG LA as the Licensing Agent for Visual 
	*	MPEG LA as facilitator of the Systems Patent Holder Group, 
	*	Dolby as the facilitator for the Audio Patent Holder Group
	*	Dolby as the Licensing Agent for the AAC Group that has 
	started to license its MPEG-4 AAC patents
4.	M4IF points to the "Summary of the MPEG-4 Licensing Situation 
	by the President" (m4-out-20017) for an account of what was 
	discussed during the meeting. M4IF notes that the goal of these 
	discussions was not to reach a consensus, but to document the 
	situation.
5.	In order to facilitate deployment of MPEG-4 Structured Audio 
	and Face/Body Animation, it will be necessary to assess the 
	patent situation. M4IF resolves to have a "Call for Existence 
	of Patents Essential to the Implementation of MPEG-4 Structured 
	Audio and Face/Body Animation" at the June M4IF meeting. If 
	such a Call results in statements by parties that believe that 
	such essential patents may exist, M4IF will recommend that 
	there be a third-party process to: 
	a)	Determine if there are such essential patents, and, if so
	b)	Establish a joint licensing scheme for each of these two 
		pieces of technology.
	This process will be like the processes that lead to the 
	establishment of the Visual, Audio and Systems Patent Holder 
	Groups. M4IF will not be involved in either the determination 
	of essentiality or the discussions between such patent holders.
6.	M4IF recommends that discussions on M4IF's potential roles in:
	*	getting rapid access to licenses for MPEG-4 part 10 and 
		AFX/Multi-user worlds, and
	*	facilitating a royalty-free baseline, 
	continue on a new discussion list, Patent WG5 
	(patentWG5   lists.m4if.org), to be chaired by a chairperson to 
	be found among the M4IF members taking part in the JVT process. 
	Jan van der Meer (Jan.vandermeer   philips.com) will chair the 
	discussions until such a chair has been identified. M4IF is 
	prepared to fulfill any role in this process that could advance 
	the process, and is consistent with its Statutes.
Adjourned 17:11 hours 
______________________________________________________________________