MPEG LA Announces Progress in Facilitation of LTE Patent Pool License

Efforts started last year have prepared market for efficient licensing alternative and MPEG LA call for patent submissions

DENVER, CO, US − May 11, 2009 -- MPEG LA, LLC, world leader in alternative one-stop patent licenses, today announced that it has made significant progress working with a group of interested companies to facilitate creation of a joint patent pool license for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Standard for mobile telecommunications. MPEG LA’s efforts, started last year, have been directed toward educating the market about the benefits of a pool license to address the patent thicket around this next generation wireless technology and assist the market with its adoption.

“The market is ready, and we are proud that industry leading companies have invited us to facilitate creation of an LTE pool license,” said MPEG LA President and CEO Larry Horn. “Given the history of telecommunications patent pools, MPEG LA has taken the time to consult directly with mobile network operators, network equipment manufacturers and mobile handset companies regarding the benefits of a patent pool for LTE, and they have encouraged MPEG LA to move forward with this effort. We are pleased by their vote of confidence. Next generation wireless technology, with its multifunctional capabilities, begs for a patent pool licensing alternative to make its full potential available to consumers worldwide, and MPEG LA’s success in creating large pool licenses uniquely positions us to achieve it.”

MPEG LA would like as many essential patent holders as possible to be included in this process. Therefore, MPEG LA invites any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the LTE Standard (see attached) to submit them by June 19, 2009 for evaluation of their essentiality by MPEG LA’s patent evaluators in order to participate in the creation of a joint LTE patent license. Although only issued patents will be included in the license, in order to participate in the license development process, patent applications with claims that their owners believe are essential to the LTE Standard and likely to issue in a patent also may be submitted. In addition, although the process will begin with LTE, it may be expanded at a later stage to provide coverage for backward compatibility with other mobile telecommunications technologies. Further information, along with terms and procedures governing patent submissions, can be found at: http://www.mpegla.com/pid/lte.

LTE Standard

LTE is next-generation wireless technology enabling mobile networks to meet consumer demand to move to higher speed data communications beyond that offered by existing 3G networks. LTE also offers an internet protocol architecture that opens the door to wireless business models and devices not currently offered in traditional telecommunications networks.

MPEG LA, LLC

MPEG LA is the world leader in alternative technology licenses, enabling users to acquire worldwide patent rights necessary for a technology standard or platform from multiple patent owners in a single transaction as an alternative to negotiating individual licenses. Wherever an independently administered one-stop patent license would provide a convenient marketplace alternative to assist users with implementation of their technology choices, the licensing model pioneered and employed by MPEG LA may provide a solution. By balancing patent users’ interest in reasonable access with patent owners’ interest in reasonable return, MPEG LA creates the opportunity for adoption of new technologies and fuels innovation. MPEG LA’s initial licensing program for MPEG-2 digital video compression helped produce the most widely employed standard in consumer electronics history, and the MPEG LA® Licensing Model has become the template for addressing other technologies. Today MPEG LA manages licensing programs consisting of essential patents in 57 countries. MPEG LA is an independent licensing administrator; it is not related to any standards agency and is not an affiliate of any patent holder. For more information, please refer to http://www.mpegla.com.

ATTACHMENT

Initial evaluations will be based on the following documents which may be obtained at: http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/36-series.htm

Doc. #	Title of Document
TS 36.101	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception
TS 36.104	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Base Station (BS) radio transmission and reception
TS 36.106	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); FDD repeater radio transmission and reception
TS 36.133	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Requirements for support of radio resource management
TS 36.201	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Long Term Evolution (LTE) physical layer; General description
TS 36.211	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical channels and modulation
TS 36.212	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Multiplexing and channel coding
TS 36.213	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical layer procedures
TS 36.214	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical layer - Measurements
TS 36.300	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2
TS 36.302	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Services provided by the physical layer
TS 36.304	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) procedures in idle mode
TS 36.306	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) radio access capabilities
TS 36.314	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Layer 2 - Measurements
TS 36.321	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification
TS 36.322	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Link Control (RLC) protocol specification
TS 36.323	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) specification
TS 36.331	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification
TS 36.401	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Architecture description
TS 36.410	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); S1 layer 1 general aspects and principles
TS 36.411	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); S1 layer 1
TS 36.412	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); S1 signalling transport
TS 36.413	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) ; S1 Application Protocol (S1AP)
TS 36.414	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); S1 data transport
TS 36.420	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); X2 general aspects and principles
TS 36.421	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); X2 layer 1
TS 36.422	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); X2 signalling transport
TS 36.423	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); X2 Application Protocol (X2AP)
TS 36.424	Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); X2 data transport