DVB Launches New Declaration Process To Foster Patent Pooling

As of July 1st 2005, rights holders can submit declarations of patents essential to a DVB specification immediately after adoption of the specification by the DVB Technical Module.  This routinised patent declaration process is part of the DVB Project's effort to foster the formation of patent pools covering DVB specifications. The new process builds on the success of the earlier efforts for fostering pooling of patents essential to DVB-T, MHP, OCAP and other DVB specifications.

Under the new process, declarations for patents essential to a DVB specification can be made to the Patent Review Coordinator from the time the specification is adopted by the DVB’s Technical Module. The availability of declaration review will be announced at that time and the Technical Module will receive periodic updates of the overall progress of submissions.  The DVB website will also have periodic reports for each specification.  The coordinator will identify successful declarants who will then, generally at the end of six months, follow on with the next steps in the pooling process. 

The process announced today has already a “back-log” of specifications for which declarations can be submitted. These include DVB S-2 (ETSI EN 305 307), TV-Anytime in DVB (TS 102 323) and the suite of standards for DVB over IP based network.  A list of these “back-log” specifications and more details about the declaration process can be found in the IPR Policy section of the DVB website.