Patent issues (Was: Re: [vorbis] Winamp5)

[Stan Seibert]

Linus Walleij wrote:

>Now I've heard this kind of claims over and over again, and yet I have
>failed to ever see a patent lawer issue something like a statement
>that a product certainly *does not* include patented technology. Why
>is vorbis expected to do this when Fraunhofer, RealMedia, Microsoft
>etc does not?
>  
>
I'm not particularly interested in the patent debate since I'm not a 
lawyer, but I would like to know what assurances ARE actually claimed 
with other codecs.

Presume for the moment we can take the offers of codec makers at face 
value.  (That is, ignore the possibility that someone is offers 
warranties or protection in such a way that is legally unenforceable or 
otherwise fake.)  Suppose I make WhizBang 2003, my fictitious music 
player, and license MP3, WMA, AAC, and RealAudio so that I can sell my 
software at Best Buy.  Tomorrow, EvilCompany starts sending out 
subpoenas claiming that they hold patents which one of these codecs 
infringes and therefore I am being sued for not paying EvilCompany's 
licensing fees.  What protection do I have?  Does 
Fraunhofer/Microsoft/MPEG/Real offer to put up a legal defense?  If they 
lose, do they offer to pay the retroactive license fees to EvilCompany 
that I owe?

I would love to see links and quotes that answer this question so that I 
can finally understand what the state of the market is.


---
Stan Seibert

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