What's the current status of mp3-licensing issues?

Tue Nov 10 04:04:25 UTC 2015

I believe that the current status of mp3 is it is patent free in the US
and most or all of the rest of the world. Analysis after the quoted portion.

On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 09:36:07 -0400, "Tom \"spot\" Callaway" wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-11-01 at 10:47 +0300, Peter Lemenkov wrote:
>> What about US?
> 
> The Fraunhofer/Thomson patents have not expired in the US.
> They are not willing to give us an unrestricted patent grant.
> 
> US Patent 5559834 expires September 24, 2013
> US Patent 4942607 expires February 3, 2008
> US Patent 5812672 expires September 2, 2015
> US Patent 5579430 expires November 26, 2013
> US Patent 5321729 expires June 24, 2011
> US Patent 5706309 expires January 6, 2015
> US Patent 5227990 expires July 13, 2010
> US Patent 4821260 expires December 16, 2007
> US Patent 5214742 expires May 25, 2010
> US Patent 6185539 expires February 6, 2018
> US Patent 5703999 expires November 18, 2016
> US Patent 5924060 expires July 13, 2016
> US Patent 5701346 expires February 2, 2015
> US Patent 6009399 expires April 16, 2017
> US Patent 5384811 expires January 24, 2012
> US Patent 5736943 expires April 7, 2015
> US Patent 5742735 expires April 21, 2015
> US Patent 5455833 expires October 3, 2012
> 
> In addition, Alcatel-Lucent holds patents which may relate to MP3 and
> MPEG encoding. This is still pending appeal (Alcatel-Lucent v
> Microsoft). It is not clear whether they will give out an unstricted
> patent grant.
> 
> US Patent 5341457 expires Aug 20, 2013.
> US Patent RE39,080 expires April 25, 2023.
> 
> ~spot

Here are the ones that either the analysis or mine think are
still unexpired (I am assuming we can consider the rest expired):

US Patent 5703999 expires November 18, 2016 -> December 30, 2014
US Patent RE39,080 expires April 25, 2023. -> May 6, 2014
US Patent 5924060 expires July 13, 2016 -> January 14, 2011

US Patent 6185539 expires February 6, 2018 -> February 19, 2017
US Patent 6009399 expires April 16, 2017

Here is why I think 5703999 is expired:

Patent:  5703999
Filed:  18 nov 1996  Granted:  30 dec 1997  Expiration:  32 feb 2015
Summary:  Process for reducing data in the transmission and/or storage
of digital signals from several interdependent channels  Notes:
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5703999 file+20:
[2016, 11, 18] related_patent+20:[2015, 2, 32]
Expiration date listed as November 18, 2016, but it is a continuation of
a patent filed May 18, 1993.  Expiration date should be 17 years from
1997, or Dec 30, 2014

Here is why I think RE39080 is expired:

Patent:  RE39080
Filed:  22 sep 1994  Granted:  06 may 1997  Expiration:  06 may 2014
Summary:  Rate loop processor for perceptual encoder/decoder  Notes:
Reissue of 05627938 filed 13 aug 2002 granted 25 apr 2006
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=RE39080 file+20:
[2014, 9, 22] related_patent+20:[2008, 12, 32] grant+17:[2014, 5, 6]
Expiration date listed as April 25, 2023.  It is a refile of a
continuation of a patent first filed in Dec 30, 1988.  Original patent
issued May 6, 1998, so expires 17 years or May 6, 2014.

Here is why I think 5924060 is expired:

Patent:  5924060
Filed:  20 mar 1997  Granted:  13 jul 1999  Expiration:  14 jan 2011
First Date:  14 jan 1991
Summary:  Digital coding process for transmission or storage of
acoustical signals by transforming of scanning values into spectral
coefficients  Notes:
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5924060 file+20:
[2017, 3, 20] related_patent+20:[2011, 1, 14]
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/650,896,
 filed on May 17, 1996, (now abandoned) which was a continuation of
 application Ser. No. 08/519,620, filed on Sep. 25, 1995, (now abandoned)
 which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/977,748, filed on Nov.
 16, 1992, (now abandoned), which was a continuation of application Ser.
 No. 07/816,528, filed on Dec. 30, 1991, (now abandoned), which was a
 continuation of application Ser. No. 07/640,550, filed on Jan. 14, 1991,
 (now abandoned), which was a continuation of application Ser. No.
 07/177,550, filed on Apr. 4, 1991, (now abandoned) as international
 application serial No. PCT/DE87/00384, filed Aug. 29, 1987, claiming
 priority to foreign appl. No. P3629434.9, filed Aug. 29, 1986.
Expiration date is listed as July 13, 2016, but it is a continuation of
a patent filed 1991 and it was continued after 1996, so it expires 20
years after the first file date, or January 14, 2011

That leaves US PATENT 6185539:

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6185539

and US PATENT 6009399

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6009399

First of all, these were both filed in 1997.  Since the Final MPEG-1
specification (as ISO/IEC 11172-3) was published in August 1993 the
patents were filed well past the August 1994 cut off date.  Secondly,
looking at the claims, (and I am not a lawyer)  6,185,539 seems to be
discussion MPEG-2, and 6,009,399 seems to be discussing an encoding
optimization compared to standard MPEG-1.

If you are wondering how likely it is that there are other patents on
MP3, I believe it is unlikely.  Because of the age of the MP3
specification (22 years for the final version and 25 years after the
publicly available draft), it is increasingly unlikely that any patents
still exist for for it.  Before 1995 in the United States, patents could
be continued, but for those it would probably would take about 3 years
for the patent to be granted, and then it would have a 17 year term from
the grant date, which means it would expire by 2015.
Current patent law in the United States and the European Union is 20
years after the filing date (with some exceptions if the patent office
processing is delayed), so again, ones filed before the MP3
specification was published are generally going to be expired.

I contacted Technicolor ( http://www.mp3licensing.com/ )
which licenses MP3 patents and asked if patent licensing was still
needed for encoding and decoding MP3s.  They replied but did not
answer that question and stated that they do not license end users
or individuals.  I did tell them when I believed the MP3 patents expired
and that I would be publishing my conclusions.

My previous article on mp3 expiration listed MP3 as patent free on
September 22, 2015:
http://www.osnews.com/story/24954/US_Patent_Expiration_for_MP3_MPEG-2_H_264

So as I stated above, I am fairly certain that MP3 encoding and decoding
is now patent free.

Josh Cogliati

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