5 ms·
The MPEG LA will most likely look at a ton of patent claims on WebM in the next 5 weeks, accept any with even a tenuous grasp on reality as legitimate, count ho
by KaeseEs 16y ago
The MPEG LA will most likely look at a ton of patent claims on WebM in the next 5 weeks, accept any with even a tenuous grasp on reality as legitimate, count how many they have, and announce a number of infringements essential to WebM. They will then file a number of lawsuits in a shotgun fashion, perhaps a few hundred, half of which will be against Google, and the other half against various companies using WebM; these will serve to gain royalties in settlements (minor gain) and discourage adoption of WebM (major gain). The suits against Google and whichever minor players don't settle will be appealed by the losing party and drag on for years.
This isn't the end of the FUD, or even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.
- haberman 16y ago> They will then file a number of lawsuits in a shotgun fashion, perhaps a few hundred, half of which will be against Google, and the other half against various companies using WebM And then we'll finally get to see what Google has up their sleeve, because they're not dumb and surely saw this coming. Maybe there will be a counter-suit, because h.264 violates some of Google's patents.
- Symmetry 16y agoCould the MPEG-LA be sued if Google has patents that cover h.264? I'm not sure it could and if so we'd see a divergence between the interests of the MPEG-LA (who need to maintain control) and the groups contributing patents to them (who are afraid of a patent war).
- rmc 16y agoI believe the MPEG-LA has a patent pool, where all companies that have patents on it pool them together. They don't sue anyone who's in the pool and they aren't sued by anyone in that pool. If this is the case, then google could sue MPEG-LA users, but they might get sued themselves.
- jon_dahl 16y agoThey will then file a number of lawsuits in a shotgun fashion, perhaps a few hundred, half of which will be against Google, and the other half against various companies using WebM More likely, they will announce licensing terms and ask for everyone using WebM to acquire a license and pay royalties. Then, after a window of time, they will go after companies that don't license the patents.