Property Considerations
IEEE 1394 compliance or implementation is considered infringement of 261 active issued international patents held by 10 corporations. To facilitate licensure to designers, a patent pool was formed by those holders to sublicense their patents to a license administrator, MPEG LA, LLC, who sublicenses them in turn to designers. Under the license offered by MPEG LA, a royalty of US$0.25 per unit is payable upon the manufacture of each 1394 finished product.
Designers may only review the actual 1394 Patent Portfolio License upon written request to MPEG LA to receive a hardcopy. Designers would thus need to reveal some interest to the Licensor early in the design process, or review patents from 20 countries in 14 languages, to consider compliance. MPEG LA does not provide assurance of protection to licensees beyond its own minority subset of patents. At least one formerly licensed patent is known to be removed from the pool, and other extra-pooled hardware patents exist that reference 1394-related hardware and software functions related to use in IEEE 1394. In total, over 1770 patents issued in the 20 years (the WIPO minimum) preceding 2011 contain "IEEE 1394" in their titles alone, placing 1500 unavailable from MPEG LA.
A trade association exists, the 1394 High Performance Serial Bus Trade Association (the "1394 TA"), formed strictly for marketing functions, with bylaws specifically excluding all intellectual property issues held by members.
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