MPEG LA Extends H.264 Royalty-Free Period

The MPEG LA just issued a press release indicating that they will extend the royalty-free period for H264 Internet Video until 2016.

MPEG LA announced today that its AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is free to end users (known as Internet Broadcast AVC Video) during the next License term from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2016. Products and services other than Internet Broadcast AVC Video continue to be royalty-bearing, and royalties to apply during the next term will be announced before the end of 2010.

This is good news for the short-term, but the patents do not expire until 2028, leaving them another 12 years of changes to rake in royalties. Read the release here.

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Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a computer graphics programmer and news junky that's been working in the field for the last 15 years. He's responsible for visualizations generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, ytnef, mullion support in ParaView, and VizWorld.com.