Panasonic, Philips and Sony to establish One Stop

Panasonic, Philips and Sony are currently working with other Blu-ray
Disc patent holders to establish a one-stop-shop license for Blu-ray
Disc products. This license, which covers essential patents for
Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD, will be introduced in the middle of this
year. The license program will be offered by a new independent
licensing company that will be based in the United States with branch
offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America. The CEO of the new license
company will be Mr. Gerald Rosenthal, former head of IP at IBM and
more recently CEO of Open Invention Network.
"By establishing a new licensing entity that offers a single license
for Blu-ray Disc products at attractive rates, I am confident that it
will foster the growth of the Blu-ray Disc market and serve the
interest of all companies participating in this market, be it as
licensee or licensor." said Mr. Rosenthal.
The three founding companies believe that the introduction of this
simplified one-stop shop product license will stimulate the growth of
the market for Blu-ray Disc products. Any holder of essential patents
for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD patents is invited to join this licensing
entity as a licensor and also as shareholder.
The fees for the new product licenses are US$9.50 for a Blu-ray Disc
player and US$14.00 for a Blu-ray Disc recorder. The per disc license
fees for Blu-ray Disc will be US$0.11 for a read only disc, US$0.12
for a recordable disc and US$0.15 for a rewritable disc. As a result
of the efficiencies obtained with the combined license offering, the
royalty rates for Blu-ray Disc products are expected to be at least
40% lower than the current cumulative royalty rates for individual
Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD format licenses.