MPEG Audio
About MPEG Audio
The MPEG Audio patents licensed by SISVEL and Audio MPEG are owned by France Télécom, TDF S.A.S., U.S. Philips Corporation, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH, and Bayerische Rundfunkwerbung GmbH.
The technology covered by the MPEG Audio patents includes encoding and decoding devices and processes developed by the world-class research laboratories of the patent owners. This technology forms the backbone of the MPEG Audio standard, which is essential to the existence of MP3 players and crucial to the operation of many other consumer electronics devices including, but not limited to set-top boxes, digital TV cards, digital TV sets, sound boards for computers, and MP3 players, regardless of whether such MP3 players are standing alone or incorporated in other products, such as cellular telephones, computers, home theatres, multimedia players, sound systems, car stereos, digital cameras, navigation systems, digital photo frames, or DVD players.
The International Organization for Standardization (“ISO”) appreciated the value and significance of this technology and adopted elements of it as a mandatory part of the ISO/IEC 11172-3 (MPEG-1 Audio) and 13818-3 (MPEG-2 Audio) MPEG Audio standards directed to MPEG Audio layers 1, 2, and 3 ("MP3") technology. As a result, products using MPEG audio compression necessarily follow the standard and use this technology.
Therefore, all products using MPEG Audio compression technology need a patent license from SISVEL and Audio MPEG regardless of whether they have already acquired licenses (directly or through their chip suppliers) from other companies for other patents on these products.
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