{"id":2044,"date":"2025-03-20T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/?p=2044"},"modified":"2025-03-20T08:00:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T08:00:49","slug":"huawei-to-join-via-licensing-alliance-hevc-vvc-patent-pool-as-vvc-licensor-and-licensee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/huawei-to-join-via-licensing-alliance-hevc-vvc-patent-pool-as-vvc-licensor-and-licensee\/","title":{"rendered":"Huawei to join Via Licensing Alliance HEVC\/VVC patent pool as VVC licensor and licensee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Context:<\/strong> In December, Huawei joined Via LA\u2019s Enhanced Voice Services and Immersive Voice and Audio Services voice codec program (December 10, 2024 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>). This came after the company had already been an active member of Via LA\u2019s AVC video codec program. Huawei\u2019s increased membership in these pools is part of Via LA\u2019s wider efforts to expand its presence in Asia, and specifically China. At the time of the Voice Codec pool\u2019s launch, Via LA\u2019s head of programs Willy Chang told ip fray<\/strong> that EVS is basically limited to mobile and the largest mobile makers outside of Apple are now generally in China and Korea. Via LA also recently announced a strategic partnership with ULDAGE<\/a>, a Japanese patent pool administrator that mainly focuses on digital broadcasting and emerging sectors (like EV charging), to help expand Via LA\u2019s EV Charging patent pool in Japan (February 18, 2025 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s new:<\/strong> Today, Huawei has announced it will also be joining Via LA\u2019s HEVC\/VVC patent pool as both a VVC licensor and licensee. The announcement comes during Via LA\u2019s Business Summit in Shanghai, which ip fray<\/strong> is attending, this week (February 28, 2025 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>). On the sidelines of the Summit today, Huawei\u2019s IP head Alan Fan said VVC is increasingly being adopted, including by Chinese implementers, so it is more important than ever for licensors to come together to find a solution to help the industry. While VVC has nowhere near the type of market uptake the HEVC one has, Via LA President Heath Hoglund said today that the addition of Huawei\u2019s patents will be specifically important to strengthen the VVC part of the pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direct impact:<\/strong> Mr. Hoglund has previously been very vocal about his key long-term mission of owning a portfolio that consists of several multi-generational programs. One success story he has long cited is the folding-in of newer audio technologies into the original AAC pool and licensing those together as a package. With significant VVC adoption still being some years out, a pool with this structure allows for the success of its HEVC half to continue while allowing the pool administrator to get ahead of the ever-increasing uptake of VVC technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wider ramifications:<\/strong> This move is another example of Via LA\u2019s continued focus on Asia as a market. As noted by Mr. Chang in an earlier interview, China, Japan and South Korea may be Via LA\u2019s \u201cstrongest geographies\u201d (December 10, 2024 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>). It also underlines Mr. Hoglund\u2019s views expressed during a recent interview with Eli Mazour<\/a>, in the Clause 8 podcast, when he said the ticket to entry into any room that discusses ongoing or new Via LA programs is owning relevant IP (March 11, 2025 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>). This \u201cbalanced\u201d approach will allow Huawei to influence how this multi-generational pool is shaped as time evolves, according to Mr. Fan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Originally solely an HEVC patent pool, Via LA announced in May 2024 that it was expanding the program to include VVC patents, with TCL joining this extended iteration as both a licensor and licensee. Over 500 companies have now obtained licenses from this program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement today, Mr. Fan said the company is \u201cpleased\u201d to announce this strategic project:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWith increasingly wider deployment of video and audio standard technologies, Huawei, both as a licensor and licensee, is dedicated to exploring an efficient approach to share our groundbreaking video and audio technologies through Via LA\u2019s patent pool, which also provides certainty and transparency to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Also in a statement today, Mr. Hoglund said the pool administrator is \u201cvery happy\u201d to welcome Huawei to its HEVC\/VVC pool as a VVC licensor and licensee:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cHuawei has one of the most significant VVC patent portfolios and will be very important to our video device programs in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He noted that Huawei not only has “many” VVC patents, but many “good” patents, and the addition of the company to this program will be specifically important to strengthen the VVC half of the program: “So we are happy to have Huawei jumping into the pool with us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Via LA President noted that of over 200 patent pool meetings that the company has hosted, the Business Summit this week saw seven of its first in China \u2013 and he is eager to host many more. He also re-emphasized the company\u2019s enthusiasm to have licensees who also hold relevant patents present in the rooms for such discussions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf you favour licensors too much then you will have to spend a lot of time litigating but if you favour licensees too much you won\u2019t make as much money.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Complimenting Via\u2019s \u201cbalanced\u201d approach to licensing, Mr. Fan noted that joining as a licensor and licensee means Huawei will be able to influence the outcome of the HEVC\/VVC program. But, he emphasizes, Huawei will continue to try to be balanced:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose pools that favor licensors too much won\u2019t be as successful \u2013 we are part of both communities and in several Via pools and find Via\u2019s rates to be very fair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cVia LA is thrilled to have Huawei jumping into the pool with it\u201d, as VVC adoption is set to take off, President Heath Hoglund tells ip fray on the sidelines of the company\u2019s first-ever Business Summit in Shanghai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,51,28,146,20,14,15,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-huawei","category-l-icensors-licensees","category-multimedia","category-patent-pools","category-patents","category-standard-essential-patents","category-via-la-patent-pools"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2044"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2073,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions\/2073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}