Since December, Via Licensing Alliance (Via) has seen several significant organizational changes, including its former President Heath Hoglund leaving for Sisvel (January 7, 2026 ip fray article), Access Advance acquiring its HEVC and VVC patent pools (December 15, 2025 ip fray article), and ex-Chief Licensing Officer Jane Bu moving to Avanci (March 12, 2026 ip fray article). The company has also recently taken on an additional focus: a series of patent licensing programs that focus on datacenter technologies, including one which will involve Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM: November 18, 2025 ip fray article).
At Via’s Business Summit in Rome last month (March 20, 2026 ip fray article), ip fray sat down with the company’s new President, Kevin Mack, to discuss the Access Advance HEVC/VVC sale, the Chinese market, and how he plans to leverage his time in-house at Dolby in his new post.
Kevin Mack has loved engineering and science since he was a young child, and after a stint at the BMW technology office early in his career, he realised the importance of collaboration in creating efficiencies and unlocking value in IP. So for him, it was a no-brainer to take on the role of President at Via.
“It’s a really great company if you really love business, law, and technology,” he tells ip fray. “All of the nuance and complexity of ensuring our licensors and partners are provided with fair return on investment was appealing.”
Prior to this, Mr. Mack was Vice President of IP & Legal Strategy at Dolby for six years, and served as Senior Director & Assistant Chief Patent Counsel between 2012 and 2019. Some of his career highlights before that include his time in private practice (at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom from 2007 to 2012), where he litigated some of the largest patent disputes around algorithmic trading for the Chicago Board Exchange and the Chicago Market Dollar Exchange – some of the leading financial exchanges – and when he worked at Oracle as an engineer.
He notes that while he enjoyed his time in private practice, moving in-house allowed him to gain a “true business acumen”:
“You not only have this complex layer of law and technology, but a layer on top of business – and that’s where I like to create impact. It’s much more holistic and nuanced in terms of the decision-making process, because you really need the business, law, and technology coming together to strategically make the right choices.”
Access Advance sale
Any time there is a leadership change, this inherently becomes an obstacle, Mr. Mack notes. So while the new President has a whole array of goals, one of his main priorities will be getting people on board with the new direction of the organization (which he emphasizes has not shifted that much). Switching his mindset from being a licensor to being the bridge between licensors and licensees will also take time, he says, adding:
“At Via, we are a bridge between both parties, so you have to really be considerate of both sides of the argument.”
The day Mr. Mack was appointed, Access Advance announced it was acquiring the administrator of Via’s HEVC and VVC pools (December 15, 2026 ip fray article). The transfer has been going well, according to the new President, but any change of direction will all be under Advance’s control now.
Last month, it was reported that Via’s video licensors had been kept in the dark about the Advance sale. Mr. Mack notes that he does not know where this information came from, but that, generally, there is an understanding that transactions of that type “should be held in confidence”.
Mr. Mack also emphasizes that the feedback from licensors has generally been very positive, as the goal was to consolidate the two programs under one umbrella, creating additional efficiencies for the ecosystem.
China and the future of Via
Since Mr. Mack was appointed President, Via has announced the addition of Honor as an AAC patent pool licensee (March 9, 2026 ip fray article), and two new Chinese smart auto licensees to the Qi program (February 23, 2026 ip fray article). The company has deep connections to the Chinese marketplace, including through Tony Gan, who runs the company’s Chinese licensing division.
Mr. Mack himself also has a lot of experience with the Chinese market. During his seven-year stint running Dolby’s compliance group, the companies he chiefly dealt with included some of mainland China’s largest manufacturers and tech businesses. At one point, he was visiting every six months, he notes, commenting on the importance of face-to-face contact in inking deals in China.
So, what’s next for Via? Where does Mr. Mack want to take Via under his stewardship?
This year, he wants to maintain the current momentum for all of its programs. The company has a diverse set, with several in the formation phase, several in growth, several in mature growth, and several in the mature bracket (where they are plateauing). While that diversity is great, he says they will need to ensure they focus on quickly scaling emerging solutions such as Via’s new datacenter pool focused on DRAM, nurturing the younger ones (Qi Wireless, Voice Codec (EVS and IVAS), and ATSC 3.0), and that the more mature ones continue with renewals.
Looking further ahead, he really believes that the big thing will be artificial intelligence (AI). According to Mr. Mack, it will create efficiencies in two ways:
- helping streamline operations and processes; and
- unlocking new lines of business and new opportunities for the organization to provide better services for both licensors and licensees.
So Via will not just be looking at AI for programs (such as those in its datacenter series: September 25, 2025 ip fray article), but also for integrating its capabilities into improving the operations within the organisation and eventually grow.