An Xiaopeng, Via licencing
Value of Patent Pool



　　Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you the organizing committee for inviting Via Licensing to give a 20-minute introduction. Via is company specialized in patent pool management. I’m in charge of patent licensing business of Asia-Pacific region.

　　First of all, I’ll give a brief introduction of Via as well as our patent pool management experience. Thirdly, I’ll introduce some principles for establishing patent pool, and at last I’ll introduce the value of patent pool.

　　Established in 2002, Via Licensing is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. specialized in international licensing business of patent pools. Via consists of international patent licensing, legal, and technical experts from various countries. We are not a big company with only 30 staff, but most of them are patent, legal and technical experts. We provide manufacturers a one-stop patent licensing mechanism.

　　The office where I work is Asia-Pacific Office, and we have a European Office in France. The services of Via are indicated on this picture. Via is a specialized patent pool management company. We don’t have any patent. We just provide services as an agent of patentees. Our platform includes various resources. Besides, we also provide specialized cooperation service on core patents. Patents included in patent pool must be core patents. Besides technical service, Via also provides economic service. Via also cooperates with patentees to develop patent pools and grant license to global manufacturers.

　　Via also has a commercial patent sales team. We give advice and schemes for enterprises on market potential. Besides, when there occurs breaching of contract principles or licensing principles in patent licensing process, we will review rules compliance condition under authorization. In short, what Via provides is all-round patent pool licensing service.

　　Now I’ll introduce the present patent pools of Via. Via developed from MPEG2 AAC to MPEG 4 Audio in 2003, and then to DRM which is a radio patent pool. Besides, there is TV Anytime which is a standard for middleware of TV and converter box. Another middleware standard is DVB-MHP which is mainly for digital converter box. Besides, there are WiFI 802.11 patent pool as well as 802.16, NFC and RFID in Via’s patent pool. Via also makes promotion on website. You can submit your information through website if you want to join your patent to our patent pool.

　　Via’s product licensing scope covers three categories. One is radio category like DVD, anther is audio enterprises especially for AAC patents, and the third category is 802.16 and 802.11 for communication enterprises.

　　Now I’ll introduce Via’s expertise on patent pool. The principle for establishing patent pool is international licensing. We have absolute say in patentee enterprises. We help them manage patent pool and appraise and avert risks. Besides, we have strong time concept and quick reaction capability and make decisions together with partners.

　　IT operation is very important for patent pool management. This is our partner in charge of background patent pool data management. We have also established cooperation on background database with some international standardization organizations. Financial management, especially tax management, is very complicated. Different countries have different tax policies. Our system can tell you what your total income is and how much you have to pay for tax. This tax exemption certificate is also provided by Via. Taxation rules vary in different countries which may confuse you. But our system can help you do that, which is an important part of Via’s service.

　　Besides, I’ll talk something about legal operation. Via has close cooperation with third party legal service providers like this famous US law firm. Moreover, we also provide review service for global patent licensing as well as compulsory licensing. In 2007, we will audit about ten companies from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. We also provide information sharing service and patent licensing reports to patentees. Besides, we also organize enterprises to discuss about patent licensing issues like contract clause adjustment.

　　Now I’ll introduce the advantages of patent pool. We’ve made analysis on mobile phone in our internal meetings. Mobile phone supports a lot of functions. If we add all technologies together and charge patent fees, we may find that in the future manufacturers may have to pay USD 27 to 35 of patent fee for each mobile phone. This is a conservative estimation. This is a big strike for manufacturers. If manufactures pay USD35 to patentee, add the cost to products and sell them to consumers, the consumers will become the victim. How to balance interests? Patentees would charge fees. You have to consider their investment, e.g. Microsoft has invested USD 6 billion on that. Meanwhile, you need to consider about manufacturers. To lower down patent fee and help enterprises make profit is the goal of Via. If you have all functions with the equipment but have to pay a lot of money, it’s a problem.

　　As mentioned by our speakers this morning, if we would like to use these technologies, who and how should we pay? These technologies may involve 40 or 50 patents, and we need to negotiate with 80 companies. If each company charges USD 0.1, how much would 80 companies charge you? USD 8, that’s expensive. How to lower it down? If you have to discuss with many patentees from many different countries about patent licensing, you have to pay not only money but also time as mentioned by Mr. Zhang from ZTE. The cost soars up if you have to fly to Europe and US to discuss about licensing. Beside, you may need to employ hundreds of staff to do patent licensing work. It’s impossible. There may be better solutions, but from my perspective as an employee of Via, I think patent pool is good solution. We pack various patents into one patent pool. According to our experience, if you discuss with patentees one by one, you may have to pay USD5, but if you pack them together, you only to pay USD 0.5 to 0.63. Some enterprises have a misunderstanding about patent pool. It is true that not all patents in patent pool is necessary for you. But you still can save money through patent pool. You can use more patents with lower cost. That’s a big advantage of patent pool.

　　Patent pool collects various patents together, and Via discusses with manufacturers on behalf of all patentees. In this way, Via can reduce the cost of manufacturers and offer them an acceptable fee. Via provides all-round service. We are willing to cooperate with Ministry of Information Industry, State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, standardization organizations and patent organizations to promote patent pool in China and help manufacturers and patentees reduce cost. Our office is in Hong Kong, but I travel a lot to the mainland. I hope we can have more opportunities for discussion and cooperation. Thank you very much!