Dolby Sues Snapchat Over AV1 Codec Royalties
▼ Summary
– AV1 was created by the Alliance for Open Media as an open, royalty-free video codec alternative to standards like HEVC.
– Dolby Laboratories has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Snap Inc., claiming AV1 uses Dolby’s patented technologies.
– This lawsuit is notable because AV1 is promoted under a royalty-free policy, unlike HEVC which faces frequent patent litigation.
– Dolby alleges the AV1 specification incorporates foundational technologies, subject to existing third-party patent rights.
– The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and to prevent Snap from further alleged infringement of four specific Dolby patents.
The legal status of the AV1 video codec is now under direct challenge in a significant lawsuit. Dolby Laboratories has filed a patent infringement case against Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, in a Delaware federal court. This action directly questions the royalty-free status of the AV1 standard, which was developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) as an open alternative to licensed codecs like HEVC. Dolby alleges that key technologies within AV1 utilize its patented intellectual property, for which it has not granted free licenses.
This lawsuit arrives amidst a crowded legal field concerning video compression technology. Patent holders, including Nokia and InterDigital, have actively pursued numerous companies over the use of HEVC/H.265 codec patents, targeting both hardware manufacturers and streaming platforms. Litigation over AV1 implementation, however, has been far less common. AOMedia, whose membership includes tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Netflix, explicitly states that AV1 was developed under a royalty-free patent policy and is supported by permissively licensed reference implementations.
Dolby’s legal filing contends that the foundational patents for many video coding techniques were established before the AV1 specification was created. The company argues that AV1 incorporates technologies also present in HEVC, which remain subject to existing third-party patent rights. “AOMedia does not own all patents practiced by implementations of the AV1 codec,” the complaint states, asserting that these technologies carry associated licensing obligations that Dolby has not waived.
In its suit, Dolby specifically accuses Snap of infringing upon four of its U. S. patents related to video compression. These include patents for “Inter-plane prediction,” “Picture coding supporting block merging and skip mode,” “Sample array coding for low-delay,” and “Entropy encoding and decoding scheme.” Dolby claims these patents are critical to Snapchat’s business operations. The company is seeking a jury trial and a judicial declaration that it is not bound by FRAND licensing obligations for these patents. Furthermore, Dolby requests the court to issue an injunction preventing Snap from any continued alleged infringement.
(Source: Ars Technica)