{"id":2216,"date":"2025-03-31T13:51:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T13:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/?p=2216"},"modified":"2025-03-31T13:53:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T13:53:55","slug":"dolby-gc-andy-sherman-reflects-on-success-of-ge-licensing-acquisition-opportunities-in-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/dolby-gc-andy-sherman-reflects-on-success-of-ge-licensing-acquisition-opportunities-in-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolby GC Andy Sherman reflects on success of GE Licensing acquisition, opportunities in Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The last few months have been busy for Dolby Laboratories. As well as initiating various enforcement campaigns against licensees across several markets, the company helped launch Via Licensing Alliance\u2019s new Voice Codec pool (December 10, 2024 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>) and divested thousands of non-core patents to a major IP firm. At Via LA’s Business Summit in Shanghai, ip fray<\/strong> sat down with Dolby\u2019s General Counsel Andy Sherman to reflect on the past six months and where Dolby is headed next, including the opportunities and challenges that China, and the greater Asian region, present for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Thursday before last, the news broke that Dolby was suing Finnish mobile phone manufacturer HMD in the Delhi High Court over H.264 video codec patents that implementers commonly license through Via LA (March 20, 2025 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>). As well as HMD, the company has been actively pursuing enforcement campaigns against BLU (November 12, 2024 ip fray <\/strong>article<\/a>), HP (June 26, 2024 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>), Roku (March 5, 2025 ip fray<\/strong> article<\/a>), Lava, and Asus. \u201cWe are dedicated to making sure there is an even playing field and we\u2019re protecting our IP \u2013 and we ultimately hope to welcome the folks with whom we have dispute resolution to our community of licensees,\u201d Mr Sherman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Asia in particular, Dolby\u2019s General Counsel sees mostly \u201cvery exciting\u201d opportunities. Major, leading Chinese innovators contribute more and more to important standards at a global level \u2013 whether it\u2019s 5G, audio, or wireless power \u2013 there is greater contribution, presence and investment in innovation in those spaces, he commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also noted the increasing participation of Chinese companies in pool structures:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe opportunity for us there is to continue to partner with these companies both in the creation of next-gen technology but also in bringing leadership to the way these technologies are accessed and implemented through these collaborative structures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Of course, expanding partnerships in Asia comes with its challenges. And, according to Mr. Sherman, the inconsistency in legal standards across the continent is a big one. \u201cSo when you are a global licensor, having a holistic view across territories is important,\u201d he noted. Another \u201cheadwind\u201d is differences in the way standard-essential patents (SEPs) are addressed, while a third is greater geopolitical tension: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt creates complexities, although the good news is patent pools are uniquely suited to bring folks across the globe together across borders. These programs are inherently global \u2013 licensors are from every region of the world, and so are licensees, and these structures are really intended to create a bridge between licensors and licensees independent of region.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As these pool structures expand, however, it becomes more difficult to get alignment among licensors, he added. \u201cYou\u2019ve got different diverging interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news though is that if a pool is doing its job, it\u2019s able to produce a consensus. Sherman is clearly a fan of patent pools \u2013 and so is Dolby. The company is close partners with Via LA in its AVC<\/a> and Voice Codec<\/a> programs, Access Advance in its HEVC<\/a> and VVC<\/a> programs, Sisvel in its VP9<\/a>, AV1<\/a>, and Cellular IoT<\/a> programs, and Vectis in its Opus<\/a> program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leveraging collaborative, multi-party licensing structures is a core way in which Dolby runs its business, Mr. Sherman noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GE Licensing acquisition and the future of media standards<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Last August, Dolby successfully completed its $429 million acquisition of GE Licensing (June 6, 2024 ip fray <\/strong>article<\/a>). That integration has gone well, according to Mr. Sherman, and it\u2019s beginning to generate value very consistently with what was anticipated. \u201cMaybe even better than we thought,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is particularly excited about the people who joined his team, and are now a part of the fabric of the patent licensing business, all of whom are \u201cvery talented\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Dolby also divested a substantial majority of the non-core patent assets it had assumed following the GE Licensing \u2013 a mammoth 2,500 patents that \u201cwere not really going to generate value at Dolby\u201d to Dominion Harbor. The \u201coverwhelming\u201d value of the GE Licensing deal was in the video assets, Mr. Sherman emphasized, but because of the conditions associated with the acquisition, the timing constraints, and the need for simplicity in the execution, Dolby took on some assets that were not part of its core focus. Some of these included patents related to advanced display, battery, vehicle, and semiconductor technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now with that transaction in the bag, Mr. Sherman said the company will be \u201ccatching its breath\u201d and looking out over the horizon and thinking about how to focus on new opportunities going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what does the horizon look like for the video and audio codec space? Mr. Sherman noted that it\u2019s an \u201cexciting\u201d time for media as the demand for quality \u2013 high dynamic range, frame rate, bit depth, and resolution \u2013 is growing and growing, and there is a much greater need for real-time encoding and live content streaming (like major sports events). That creates great demand for compression and efficiency and the need to be able to address newer media experiences, like volumetric experiences, so this is where AI could come in. He said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s in a lab or in a collaborative global standard, we\u2019re beginning to see a huge amount of experimentation around pre-processing, post-processing, and replacing traditional coding methods with AI or machine learning.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

How soon that will start happening depends on who you ask, he believes. While some believe it will play out over a long period of time due to the complexity of the computation requirements, others think it is imminent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Dolby\u2019s own future, Mr. Sherman said that the company is constantly evaluating opportunities through its organic innovation through contributions and standards in media and other areas, as well as through inorganic acquisitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has predominantly helped Dolby grow the scale and profitability of the business over the last several years, he believes, is a combination of a few things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Always focusing on high-value, big-impact contributions mainly through standards, but areas of technology that really make a difference and represent significant contributions of high quality.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Being part of the community of people and companies that are dedicated over the long term to bringing these technologies to the marketplace through collaborative structures that create the equilibrium between licensees and licensors that support the industry, that is set by the industry, and is overseen by the industry.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Areas that fit with our focus in research, so places where we have deep research in media and other places tend to be where we can really contribute \u2013 and then go to market and have the standing to be able to successfully license.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    These are three guiding principles that have replicated success over the years across many programmes, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dolby\u2019s $429 million acquisition of GE Licensing has already generated a lot of value for the company, perhaps even more than what was anticipated, Mr. Sherman told ip fray on the sidelines of the Via Licensing Alliance Business Summit in Shanghai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,104,169,27,146,20,15,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-dolby","category-dolby-v-hmd","category-ip-license-agreements","category-multimedia","category-patent-pools","category-standard-essential-patents","category-via-la-patent-pools"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/10.24_Dolby_Andy2755-1.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216","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=2216"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2244,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions\/2244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfray.com\/staging1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}