I ran into this about five years ago when doing a design that required HDMI I/O. Distributors in the US such as Avnet and Arrow wanted to see confirmation of be

I ran into this about five years ago when doing a design that required HDMI I/O. Distributors in the US such as Avnet and Arrow wanted to see confirmation of being under contract to be able to buy chips. I don't remember all the details. I think you get access to sample quantities just for signing the contract but anything else required payment of the big fee. Also, you couldn't get access to some data sheets without proof of being under contract. I can easily imagine that things in Asia could be very, very different due to, shall we say, how loosely IP rights are enforced there.