AOMedia Response to AV1 Third-Party Royalty Claims
The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) responds to third-party royalty claims against the AV1 video codec by firmly defending its royalty-free mandate, relying on proactive patent review processes, and providing legal defense mechanisms for its adopters. Despite efforts by external patent pools such as Sisvel to collect licensing fees for AV1 implementations, AOMedia maintains that the codec is legally sound, unencumbered by valid third-party claims, and backed by a comprehensive protective ecosystem.
Proactive Engineering and Patent Reviews
During the development of AV1, AOMedia implemented an extensive "clean-room" engineering process. Founding members—including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Intel, and Cisco—conducted legal and technical patent analyses to intentionally design around existing, patented video compression technologies. By vetting algorithms before incorporating them into the final AV1 specification, the alliance sought to preemptively neutralize intellectual property infringement risks.
The AOMedia Patent Defense Program
To protect against inevitable challenges in the complex video codec landscape, AOMedia established a formal Patent Defense Program. This program is designed to protect implementers of AV1 by:
- Financial and Legal Support: Assisting qualifying AOMedia members and participants in fighting non-member patent assertions in court.
- Prior Art Sharing: Maintaining an extensive repository of prior art that can be used to invalidate third-party patents asserted against AV1.
- Mutual Non-Assertion: Requiring all alliance members to license their own relevant patents royalty-free to anyone implementing AV1, conditioned on reciprocity.
Response to Patent Pools
In 2019 and 2020, patent aggregator Sisvel announced pools claiming to license patents essential to AV1 and VP9. AOMedia responded by reaffirming its commitment to a royalty-free web standard. The alliance publicly expressed skepticism regarding the validity and essentiality of the patents in these pools, advising the industry that joining or paying these pools is unnecessary. AOMedia has reiterated that external assertions do not change the core licensing terms of AV1, nor do they diminish the alliance's determination to contest questionable infringement claims.
Continued Market Deployment
AOMedia advises companies implementing AV1 to continue deployment without capitulating to third-party fee demands. By continuously monitoring global patent filings and offering legal solidarity to its ecosystem, the alliance ensures that AV1 remains a viable, open-source alternative to proprietary codecs like HEVC and VVC.