Samsung has filed a patent infringement suit against HEVC video codecs. Unless you pay up, you’re out of luck! Among other things, Samsung is being sued by MPEG LA, a licensing organization that owns the patents for the high-efficiency video codec (HEVC).
As reported by Business Wire, Samsung served as both licensor and licensee from 2014 until March 2020, in accordance with the complaint. Following that date, the lawsuit claims that Samsung continued to provide HEVC-supporting products even after its licence expired.
The lawsuit will be filed in the German city of Düsseldorf. MPEG LA is requesting injunctions, monetary damages, and reimbursement of its legal fees. Samsung Electronics GmbH, a German subsidiary of Samsung, is explicitly targeted in the action.
HEVC, often known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), is a video compression standard that is widely used. When compared to the earlier AVC standard, the newer HEVC standard provides up to 50% greater data compression while maintaining the same degree of visual quality. Almost all modern hardware, including PCs and smartphones, is capable of encoding and decoding high-definition video using the HEVC format.
The complaint has not yet received a response from Samsung. The reason why a firm of Samsung’s scale would let its HEVC licence to expire is beyond us to comprehend. Perhaps there is something else going on in the background here.
According to an MPEG LA document, HEVC licensees are required to pay US $0.20 per unit sold once the first 100,000 units or devices are sold, with a yearly cap of $25 million for each licensee. That’s not exactly pocket change, but for a firm the size of Samsung, it’s fairly close to it. Even while fascinating and patent lawsuits are two notions that rarely combine and are often mutually exclusive, it will be interesting to see how the case progresses in the next months.
