Context:
- Last month, Access Advance Video Distribution Pool (VDP) licensor Dolby brought patent infringement cases against Snapchat operator Snap in the United States andin Brazil. The standards at issue are AV1 (an Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia or AOM) standard that is advertised as royalty-free but ever more often subject to royalty demands) and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, H.265) (March 24, 2026 ip fray article).
- One problem facing AV1 implementers is that various major video patent holders never participated in the creation of that standard, thus are not bound by a FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing) pledge, much less by the Alliance for Open Media’s royalty-free give-away policy.
What’s new: Late on Wednesday (April 15, 2026), the patent hammer started to come down on Snap in Brazil as Judge Milena Drumond of the 1st Business Court of the Rio de Janeiro State Judiciary entered a case management order that amounts to a roadmap to a preliminary injunction (PI), starting with a five-day deadline for the defendant to justify its use of Dolby’s AV1 patents without paying royalties, despite Access Advance having previously offered a license.
To Read The Full Story
Continue reading your article with a Membership
Court and counsel
1st Business Court of Rio de Janeiro: Judge Milena Angélica Drumond Morais Diz (short form: Judge Milena Drumond).
Dolby is being represented by a team at Licks Attorneys (ip fray firm profile with numerous SEP achievements): Rodolfo Barreto, Bruno Falque, Amanda Terra, and Élcio de Lacerda.
Snap’s counsel is not named in the order, but based on the address (for service of process) appears to be Guerra IP.