I was under the impression that it was LC3plus, not LC3, that was encumbered. The LC3 codec appears to be part of the open Bluetooth specification, and its role

I was under the impression that it was LC3plus, not LC3, that was encumbered. The LC3 codec appears to be part of the open Bluetooth specification, and its role in replacing the former "free to implement" SBC appears to suggest this. Supposedly, I have read somewhere that LC3 uses some similar methods to Opus, and bears some form of technical resemblance (and hence inherits the benefits of) Opus. I have heard of someone I know using Opus directly to do some form of proprietary wireless low latency audio transmission, so it might actually be feasible, though it was noted that Opus decoding consumed a lot of microcontroller resources, which may be the real driver behind developing a "low complexity" codec.