04/20/23 1

China’s AVS Intellectual Property Rights Policy –

A New Approach for Developing Open

StandardsProf. Huang Tiejun Secretary General (tjhuang@pku.edu.cn)

Cliff Reader, Ph.D. Chair of IPR Subgroup (cliff@reader.com)

Audio and Video coding Standards Working group of China

Open and Proprietary Standards

• Companies always try to establish proprietary standards– Market control:

• Higher profit margin

• Dictate market direction and timing

• Companies still try to control open standards via IPR – Patent pools, e.g., DVD 3C/6C & MPEGLA

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Weakness of Open Standards IPR Policies

• Policy can bind members and new IP, but not non-members and legacy IP

• ISO and ITU policies are limited– Obligation to disclose existence of known

related IP– Commitment to license on RAND terms

• “Reasonable” is undefined

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Efforts Toward Better IPR Policy

• Courts enforcing equitable conduct by members of standards workgroups

• Up-front commitments by workgroup members– IETF/W3C Royalty-Free policy– IEEE ex ante RAND– AVS IPR Policy

• But cannot bind non-members

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Practical Improvements for IPR Policy

• Leadership of VCEG group for H.264– Disclosure and commitment per contribution

• AVS IPR policy builds upon previous efforts with new innovations in these areas:– Commitment to license– Obligation to disclose– Protection of IP rights

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AVS IPR Policy

• Membership agreement– AVS requires a signed agreement

– Consent to IPR Policy

• Commitment to license– Upfront when signing the Membership Agreement

• Obligation to disclose known related patents• Protection of IPR for patent holders

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September 2005 7

Commitment to License

• AVS definition:– A subgroup produces a specific standard, e.g.,

Audio, Video, Systems, DRM

• AVS members must participate in at least one subgroup

• AVS members may choose not to participate in a subgroup if they do not want to commit to license their patents for that specific standard

September 2005 8

Commitment to License

• All AVS members declare two default licensing obligations– Participant in a Subgroup

• RAND-RF – royalty-free

• AVS Patent Pool

• RAND

– Non-participant in a Subgroup• RAND-RF – royalty-free

• AVS Patent Pool

• RAND

• No license

September 2005 9

Obligation to Disclose

• For every contribution (proposal) to AVS, the contributor must disclose:– The existence of any known patent or published patent

application– The licensing obligation for that patent– Contributors with RAND default commitment must also

disclose the existence of unpublished patent applications• Ongoing obligation to disclose any related IPR• The disclosure is based on actual, reasonable knowledge –

not exhaustive search

September 2005 10

Protection of IPR

• Obligations to disclose IPR and to license it depend on subgroup participation– Subgroups develop specific standards, e.g., video, audio, systems,

DRM

– No participation = no obligation

• 90-day review period provides protection against non-contributed IPR– Owner of IP contributed by another organization can select any

licensing option including No License

– After the review period, the default option applies

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AVS Difference from ISO/ITU

• Membership– Select default licensing obligation

• RF ， AVS Pool, RAND– Disclose possible patents in proposal

• more favourable licensing is welcome

• Working group– Adopt proposal based on technical contribution

(performance gain) and licensing choice– Proposal with RF or AVS pool is prior– IPR documents

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Licensing and Selecting

Join AVS• Sign Member Agreement

•Declare default option

Participate in Subgroup• Commit to license

• License options

Submit Contribution• Disclose patents

•Declare license option

Non-Participant: • RAND RF• POOL• RAND• No License

China Patent:• RAND RF• POOL

Worldwide Patent: • RAND RF• POOL• RAND

Participant: • RAND RF• POOL• RAND

•90 days Review

Check patents that are not contributed and decide to license or not

Membershipapprove

Adopt contribution

Eliminate patents not being licensed

Key stages Members Rights Workinggroup Rights

Limits of Standards Groups

• No power to manage:– Non-member problem– Legacy patent problem

• Legislation is needed for specific case of Standards and IPR: – Legal effect of Public Review– Compulsory licensing– Cap on "reasonable”

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Summary

• AVS has made the issue or standards and licensing as predictable as possible

• Nevertheless, there is a need for legislation to protect national standards and international standards

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