MPEG-4 Visual

Via LA’s MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio License provides access to essential patent rights for the MPEG-4 (Part 2) Visual patents standard used in media player and other personal computer software, mobile devices including telephones, DVD players and recorder accessories such as DivX®, game machines, personal media player devices, security and surveillance systems equipment, still and video cameras, subscription and pay-per view or title video mobile and internet services and other products. To align with the real-world flow of MPEG-4 Visual commerce, reasonable royalties are apportioned throughout the MPEG-4 Visual value chain. The License employs annual limitations to provide cost predictability, threshold levels below which certain royalties will not be charged in order to encourage early-stage adopters and minimize the impact on lower volume users or demo products, and licensing options that require no royalty reports.

To obtain a license or for additional information, please contact info@via-la.com.

Section 1 – Decoders and Encoders

Decoders sold to end users (including fully functioning components for PCs)

Encoders sold to end users (including fully functioning components for PCs)

Enterprise cap: $3M per year prior to 2009; $3.3M in 2009; $3.6M in 2010; $3.75M after December 31, 2010

Section 2 – Participation Fees

Where End User pays for MPEG-4 Video

Subscription (Not Title-by-Title)

Title-by-Title

Where remuneration is from other sources

• Enterprise cap (applies cumulatively across the participation fee categories in this Section 2):
  • $3M per year prior to 2009; $3.3M in 2009; $3.6M in 2010; $3.75M after December 31, 2010

Licensee could elect a combined $7.5M cap, which applies to the encoder and decoder cap and the participation fees cap noted above.

The actual License agreement provides the only definitive and reliable statement of license terms.

Effective date: January 1, 2000

Back royalty from January 1, 2004

LICENSEES AND AFFILIATES IN GOOD STANDING*

*Licensees current in their obligations with respect to products reported and covered under their License; companies listed above may produce some or no products which are licensed under their respective agreement and, therefore, no conclusion may be drawn from this list that any particular products they manufacture are licensed. If you have questions about License coverage, please contact info@via-la.com.

*Terminated.  For as long as they continue to be a Licensee, those Licensees with a license in effect prior to the date of such Licensor’s termination retain their license to such Licensor’s MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio patents that the Licensor or its Affiliates presently or in the future has the right to license or sublicense (without payment to any third party which is not an Affiliate), including on or after such termination date. Please see the Patent List page and reference the Attachment 1 addendum for specific termination dates.

This is a list of patents (Attachment 1) in the MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio License (updated October 1, 2025). Under the MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio License, royalties are payable for products Manufactured or Sold in countries with an active MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio Patent at the time of Manufacture or Sale. Please note that patents are presently active in Brazil.

Licensors agree to include all MPEG-4 Visual Essential Patents that they and their Affiliates presently or in the future have the right to license or sublicense.

To obtain a license or for additional information, please contact info@via-la.com.

Please contact Via LA at ProgramManagement@via-la.com to request a copy of the submission procedures and the terms and conditions governing the submission of patents for essentiality determination in order to join the MPEG-4 Visual Licensing Program.

Pursuant to Section 1.27 of the MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio License, “MPEG-4 Visual Standard” shall mean the MPEG‑4 standard for simple, core, main, simple scalable, N-bit, basic animated texture, scalable texture, simple FA, advanced real time simple, core scalable, advanced coding efficiency, advanced core, advanced scalable texture, simple FBA, hybrid, advanced simple, fine granularity scalable, simple studio, and/or core studio profiles as defined in ISO/IEC 14496-2:2001 [Part 2 Visual dated 2001-12-01], 14496-2:2001/Amd.1:2002 [Studio profile dated 2002-02-01], or 14496-2:2001/Amd.2:2002 [Streaming video profile dated 2002-02-01].

To assist in your research, click below to download the most recent available cross-reference chart showing illustrative claims of patents in the patent families on the Attachment 1 Patent List and sections of the MPEG-4 Visual Standard for which they are essential.

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