MPEG Audio

Audio MPEG and SISVEL offer worldwide non-transferable, non-assignable, non-exclusive licenses, with no right to sublicense, under the US Patents and Non-US Patents respectively.

Royalty statements and payments for royalties accrued during each calendar quarter are due within one month after the end of that quarter.

The royalty rates for licenses differ according to the product categories indicated below.

CONSUMER HARDWARE LICENSE

The consumer hardware license covers consumer electronics products conforming to the ISO/IEC 11172-3 (MPEG-1 Audio) and/or ISO/IEC 13818-3 (MPEG-2 Audio) standards that are sufficiently assembled to be suitable for sale to or use by an end user.

The consumer hardware license does not cover:

  1. Products or part of products which make use of optical record carriers (and including such carriers), such as CD, Video-CD and DVD, only carrying records in standards other than MP3;
  2. Products conforming to the DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) standard; or
  3. Components, such as integrated circuit chips or chip sets.

Royalty Rates

Royalty rates for consumer hardware products sold after January 1, 2005 are as follows:
 

 

Number of single mono channels in
Licensed Products per calendar year

 Royalty rate
On those from 1 to 800,000 US$ 0.30 per single mono channel
On those from 800,001 to 4,000,000 US$ 0.20 per single mono channel
On those from 4,000,001 to 8,000,000 US$ 0.18 per single mono channel
On those from 8,000,001 to 12,000,000 US$ 0.16 per single mono channel
On those from 12,000,001 to 20,000,000 US$ 0.14 per single mono channel
On those exceeding 20,000,000 US$ 0.10 per single mono channel

 

No more than three channels per licensed product will be subject to the above royalty rates.

Consumer hardware products sold before January 1, 2005 remain subject to older royalty rates, which are available upon request.

Please contact a representative at the SISVEL or Audio MPEG office nearest to you for additional information regarding the MPEG Audio consumer hardware license.

PROFESSIONAL HARDWARE LICENSE

The professional hardware license covers electronics products conforming to the ISO/IEC 11172-3 (MPEG-1 Audio) and/or ISO/IEC 13818-3 (MPEG-2 Audio) that are intended and specially designed for business or commercial uses by end users, not intended for consumer uses, and sufficiently assembled to be suitable for sale to or use by an end user.

The professional hardware license does not cover:

  1. Products or part of products which make use of optical record carriers (and including such carriers), such as CD, Video-CD and DVD, only carrying records in standards other than MP3;
  2. Products conforming to the DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) standard; or
  3. Components, such as integrated circuit chips or chip sets.

Royalty Rates

Royalty rates for professional hardware products are as follows:
 

 

Type of product

 Royalty rate
Products having only decoding capabilities US$ 0.30 per single mono channel
Products having encoding capabilities(*) US$ 1.00 per single mono channel

 

(*) regardless of whether they also have decoding capabilities

No more than five channels per licensed product will be subject to the above royalty rates.

Please contact a representative at the SISVEL or Audio MPEG office nearest you for additional information regarding the MPEG Audio professional hardware license.

SOFTWARE LICENSE

For information regarding the MPEG Audio software license, please contact a representative at:

mpegaudio@sisvel.com