DENVER-Licensing clearinghouse MPEG LA L.L.C. said it is working to assemble a patent portfolio for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, which is used in South Korea to send video content to mobile phones and other devices both terrestrially and by satellite.
The company said it hopes to provide one-stop shopping for vendors by compiling relevant patents “in order to provide users with fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to as much essential intellectual property as possible under one license.” MPEG LA said it wants to establish the portfolio for Korean use initially before expanding to other markets as they develop.
“A key challenge to the implementation of this revolutionary digital mobile multimedia broadcasting technology is dealing with the intellectual property thicket resident in each device,” said Baryn Futa, the firm’s chief executive officer. “As a convenience to the marketplace, MPEG LA is pleased to play a role in facilitating an alternative license.”
But while a single patent portfolio may simplify the licensing process for broadcasters, the move actually could hinder the deployment of the technology. MPEG LA holds a similar patent portfolio for DRM technology sanctioned by the Open Mobile Alliance, but has haggled with wireless carriers and content providers over royalties for the technology.
The GSM Association has blasted the proposed royalties-which were initially floated in January and reduced by MPEG LA in April-as “unreasonable and unworkable.” The standoff between the two groups continues, potentially shackling the mobile content market as carriers and content providers begin embracing other, proprietary DRM solutions.
“The current terms of its proposals will lead to fragmentation owing to unacceptability, and critically delay launches of these new mobile services,” said Frank Boulben, European-based operator Orange’s vice president of brand and consumer marketing, earlier this year.
