ULDAGE Inc. (“ULDAGE”), a patent pool license managing company, announced on April 3 that it is going to make a call for patents essential to the standards of 4K/8K television broadcasting applicable to IPTV and CATV.
Currently, ULDAGE licenses a package of more than 600 essential patents which are related to the present digital television broadcasting standards through a patent pool system. Through this approach, ULDAGE has made a substantial contribution towards the promotion and growth of the digital television broadcasting system following the full transition of the broadcasting system from “analog broadcasting” to “digital broadcasting” by resolving the major patent issues surrounding sales and production of broadcasting receivers and broadcasting services. Further, on August 25, 2014, ULDAGE made a call for patents essential to the standards of 4K/8K broadcasting by satellites, and now has been preparing the new licensing program.
The purpose of this new call for patents is to promote the growth of 4K/8K broadcasting by creating a “one-stop licensing program” under fair and reasonable terms to license essential patents held by a number of patent holders regardless of the types of broadcasting media, and by expanding the licensing scope of 4K/8K broadcasting to IPTV and CATV, followed by the licensing related to satellite broadcasting.
Evaluation of whether a patent is essential for the standards will be conducted by the Japan Intellectual Property Arbitration Center (“JIPAC”), which is a neutral third-party institution with expertise in this field.
For any party that believes it possesses Japanese patents essential to the standards formulated by IPTV Forum Japan and standards formulated by Japan Cable Laboratories and wishes to apply for evaluation of essentiality, please apply for evaluation and submit such patents to JIPAC by June 30, 2017.
