MPEG LA Introduces License for EVS

EVS delivers unprecedented voice and music quality to mobile phones and other devices

DENVER, CO, US – June 28, 2017 – MPEG LA, LLC today announced the availability of the EVS Patent Portfolio License providing efficient access to technologies underlying the EVS (Enhanced Voice Services) standard.

Designed to operate ubiquitously over packet-switched mobile and fixed-line communications networks, EVS represents a significant advance for voice and audio compression devices with compression, network capacity and other features that deliver vastly improved high definition quality for both music and voice services. EVS may be used in products such as mobile and landline phones, videoconferencing systems, desktop computers, tablets and connected home voice response systems.

“In an era when smartphones can do virtually anything, voice quality has lagged, but now the much anticipated EVS standard transmits speech of such pure quality that consumers will experience a dramatic leap in sound clarity and efficiency over prior technologies,” said Larry Horn, President and CEO of MPEG LA. “MPEG LA is proud to offer a convenient one-stop license to assist with EVS’s rapid market adoption, and we applaud the developers of this groundbreaking technology for making it widely accessible on reasonable terms.”

Current patent owners include Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.; Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT); NTT DOCOMO, INC.; Panasonic Corporation; and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.

“The license is specially designed for rapid product deployment,” said Bill Geary, MPEG LA Vice President of Business Development. “To encourage early stage adoption, it provides for no royalty on the first 50,000 EVS products sold annually, waives the royalty for network devices during the initial term, and requires no up-front fees or annual minimums.”

Copies of the EVS license agreement may be obtained at http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/EVS/Pages/AgreementExpress.aspx. A summary of the license terms may be found at http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/EVS/Documents/EVSWeb.pdf.

MPEG LA’s objective is to provide worldwide access to as much EVS essential intellectual property as possible for the benefit of the market. Therefore, MPEG LA welcomes any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the EVS standard to submit them for an evaluation of their essentiality by MPEG LA’s patent experts and inclusion in the License if determined to be essential. Interested EVS patent owners may request a copy of the terms and procedures governing patent submissions at http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/EVS/Pages/Licensors.aspx.

MPEG LA, LLC

MPEG LA is the world’s leading provider of one-stop licenses for standards and other technology platforms. Starting in the 1990s, it pioneered the modern-day patent pool helping to produce the most widely used standards in consumer electronics history. MPEG LA has operated licensing programs for a variety of technologies consisting of more than 14,000 patents in 84 countries with some 230 patent holders and more than 6,000 licensees. By assisting users with implementation of their technology choices, MPEG LA offers licensing solutions that provide access to fundamental intellectual property, freedom to operate, reduced litigation risk and predictability in the business planning process. In turn, this enables inventors, research institutions and other technology owners to monetize and speed market adoption of their assets to a worldwide market while substantially reducing the cost of licensing. MPEG LA is also developing patent pools for CRISPR gene editing and advanced battery technologies, and has conceived licensing ventures for molecular diagnostics and oligonucleotide therapeutics. For more information, go to www.mpegla.com.