MPEG Industry Forum

Meeting	7th M4IF meeting, San Jose, California, USA, June 2002
Source:	Plenary Meeting
Title:	Resolutions of the 7th (San Jose) MPEG-4 Industry Forum Meeting

It is noted that a quorum was present (see annex A).
The Membership and Nominating Committee has accepted all applicants that have paid their dues and signed the Statutes as new members. The following companies joined M4IF since the Singapore meeting:
1. Media Excel
2. Dynapel Systems
3. Symah Vision
4. UBQT Media
5. Airia
6. Panasonic Disc Services Corporation
7. Interactive Sapience Corporation
8. Avipix
The list of members is continuously updated and made available on the public part of the M4IF website. M4IF now has 91 members, and the last 2 members mentioned will join at the beginning of the next fiscal year, bringing the total to 93.

The Draft Budget for 2001-2002 is approved as in Annex B,
- M4IF approves the creation of an associate membership at the 300 USD per annum level. Associate members will be able to take part in all activities, but will not be able to vote. Associate membership is open to all not-for-profit organizations and institutions that support the Goal of M4IF.
- M4IF approves the new membership fee of 3000 USD. The fee for new members joining after January 1st of 2002 will be 2,000 USD. This is intended to pro-rate membership fees for those that will join for less than half of the fiscal year. Associate membership will not be pro-rated.
Global Inventures is welcomed as the management firm of M4IF.
The Board is requested to report on expenses related to the management on a regular basis.

M4IF approves the report from Patent Group WG1.
M4IF approves the liaison statement to the Visual Patent Entity.
M4IF recommends that an additional call for essential patents be made for FGS, Advanced Simple and Simple Scalable Profiles, with the objective of having joint licensing schemes for these profiles. M4IF recommends using the same procedure and parties that were involved in the first call, following resolution 8 of the Schiphol meeting:
- Submission by Sept 15th.
- Evaluations ready by end of the year; depending on the amount of submissions, it will be attempted to finish this work earlier.
M4IF thanks MPEGLA and Ken Rubenstein for their availability to carry out the work.
M4IF will do an initial announcement. Further activities will take place outside of the context of M4IF.

The Forum emphasizes that taking part in this process, that was designed in the light of the goal¹ of M4IF is, by nature, voluntary.
(¹to further the adoption of the MPEG-4 Standard, by establishing MPEG-4 as an accepted and widely used standard among application developers, service providers, content creators and end users.)

M4IF approves the report from Patent Group WG2, and
1. M4IF understands that the schedule is extended because the evaluation phase will end August 1st instead of July 1st.
2. M4IF understands and welcomes that the evaluation administrator will call a meeting between holders of essential patents as soon as possible after the determination phase has ended.
3. M4IF recommends that the following policy be applied to all future submissions of patents for evaluation (across Audio, Visual and Systems):
  - Recommendation of evaluators that have international experience across relevant jurisdictions;
  - Usage of English as the language for submission, and inclusion of the possibility for Submitters to agree with the Evaluator on a different language;
  - Recommendation that the handling of different language patents be done in a fashion that has proven to work in other, similar cases.

M4IF approves the report of Patent WG3, and looks forward to receiving more news soon.

WG4 did not report at this meeting; activities will, however, continue and new input on potential licensing models is always welcome.

M4IF approves the report from the Industry Focus and Interoperability Work Group, and notes that:
1. New interoperability activities are scheduled - test plan ready by 15 July; first round of tests complete by 15 September
2. For the moment, there is only one focus group to prevent duplication of efforts. As the group grows, it can propose to split itself into multiple subgroups.
3. M4IF thanks Yung Lyul Lee, who has volunteered to co-chair the increasing workload.
4. M4IF thanks Jae-Seob Shin and Michael Casey for their efforts in getting the work underway after a hesitant start.

M4IF thanks Charles Kluz for his availability to chair the Publicity until such time that chairmanship can be handed over. The presentation by Tim Schaaff will be adapted and published on the public part of the web site within 2 weeks.

The Interoperability Rules of Conduct are approved, and an overview of them will be published on the public part of the website. The full Rules will be published on the private part of the website.

M4IF sets the following mandates for its working groups. (For mail lists and subscriptions, see M4IF website):

Patent WG1	To liaise with MPEG LA and Dr. Rubenstein in order to be kept informed on the progress in the creation of joint licensing mechanisms for MPEG-4 Visual Technology To initiate the second call for essential patents, as described in resolution 5
Chairman	Masayuki Miyanaga ([email protected]) Weiping Li ([email protected]) [Weiping Li can be replaced by another co-chair if and when identified]
End date	8th General M4IF meeting

Patent WG2	To liaise with Evaluator and Evaluation Administrator in order to be kept informed on the progress in the creation of joint licensing mechanisms for MPEG-4 Audio Technology To determine when additional Profiles need to be addressed
Chairman	Schuyler Quackenbush ([email protected])
End date	8th General M4IF meeting

Patent WG3	To liaise with MPEG LA and Dr. Rubenstein in order to be kept informed on the progress in the creation of joint licensing mechanisms for MPEG-4 Systems Technology To monitor industry needs with respect to Systems Technology. To discuss which parts of Systems technology are in most demand. To recommend further action when appropriate
Chairman	Olivier Avaro ([email protected])
End date	8th General M4IF meeting

Patent WG4	To seek input on the Study on Licensing Models for Software/ Downloadable MPEG-4 Technology To continue updating this document as appropriate. To expand this document beyond Software. To liaise with patent entities on the issues addressed in the document
Chairman	Ramzi Haidamus [[email protected]]
End date	8th General M4IF meeting

Publicity WG	Establish a set of objectives and procedures for the benefit of M4IF and its member companies on marketing and publicity; Produce a fact sheet addressing key (mis)conceptions about MPEG-4, and publish that on the public part of the M4IF website, for all members to use; Promote the progress of the IIFG WG;d) Discuss and initiate the organization of WEMP4 in 2002; Discuss and initiate visible M4IF and MPEG-4 presence at trade shows and similar events, notably IBC 2001.
Chairman	Charles Kluz [[email protected]]
End date	8th General M4IF meeting

Interoper-ability and Industry Focus WG	To finalize the workplan as mentioned in resolution 9 To carry out the workplan for interoperability testing, by the determined deadlines
Chairman	Yung-Lyul Lee, ([email protected]) Jae-Seob Shin ([email protected]) Greg Berry ([email protected])
End date	8th General M4IF meeting
Meetings	A meeting will be held on Thursday 18 October in Washington, DC, USA, between 9am and 9pm

The tentative date and place for the 8th meeting are as follows:

Date:	Friday the 19th of October
Time	9:00 - 18:00
Place:	Washington, DC, USA
Meeting fee:	to be announced

M4IF plans to organize a cocktail reception on the evening before the meeting.

Date:	End January/Begin February 2002
Time	9:00 - 18:00
Place:	To be determined
Meeting fee:	to be announced

M4IF plans to organize a cocktail reception on the evening before the meeting.

M4IF encourages companies with MPEG-4 products or product plans to send hyperlinks to information to Peter Haighton [[email protected]].

The new information for entering the private area of the web site is:
- Name: ***** (unchanged)
- Password: ***** (case sensitive)
The password can be disclosed to employees of M4IF member organizations exclusively.

These resolutions, with the exception of the username/password for access to the members-only information and the annexes, will be published on the public part of M4IF's website.

All meeting documentation will be made available on the private part of M4IF's web site.

The Press Release, to be written by Rob Koenen, is approved for distribution and publication on the Forum's web site, together with a list of the companies that were present at the meeting. The focus will be on interoperability and the 2^nd WEMP4 event. The Press release will be discussed on the Publicity WG reflector.

The Forum thanks Julie Higgins of Meeting Planit for her efficient organization of the meeting. The Forum thanks the staff of the Hilton San Jose and Towers for their professional support.