Beginning 1 July 2012, One-Red LLC became the authorised entity to administer a new joint DVD Disc and DVD Player license programme on behalf of its licensors - and owners - Philips, Sony, Pioneer and LG.

This programme should translate into lower patent royalty rates for those optical storage manufacturers and brand owners that license their products through One-Red.

One-Red delivers the following benefits to its stakeholders:

Essential patent licensing: Beginning 1 July 2012, One-Red offers a new DVD license for all essential patents of LG, Philips, Pioneer and Sony that are related to DVD Video and ROM and CD-Audio and ROM technologies.

Expertise in administering and managing patent portfolios: One-Red's employees - most of whom previously worked for Philips' optical storage licensing unit - have years of experience managing patent licensing programmes, including joint programmes. By leveraging this expertise, One-Red claims it is well positioned to manage and administer patent licensing programs for other technologies.

Unique licensing solution: The new One-Red DVD programme offers a "per-batch license," which means that shipments of products, rather than manufacturers, are licensed. This allows licensees to better track shipments of their products and prevents improperly licensed products from entering the marketplace.

Customer-focused on licensees: With 15 offices in 13 jurisdictions worldwide, One-Red provides licensees with one-on-one customer support and innovative technology to efficiently deploy their licensed products to market.

Streamlined experience for licensors: One-Red enforces, manages and monetises the patent portfolios of its licensors.

Lower licensing rates to encourage industry innovation: One-Red is offering a programme with lower royalty rates than similar or existing programmes for the use of these patents and will offer a limited-time early-bird discount to encourage current and potential licensees to participate in the new One-Red joint DVD programme.

The new programme for DVD Discs covers essential patents of DVD Video and ROM technologies while the programme for DVD players also includes essential patents related to Compact Disc Audio and ROM technologies. A list of DVD Prerecorded Disc patents may be found here and DVD Player patents may be found here.

The new joint DVD licenses are being offered on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions, says One-Red Each patent owner whose patents are included in the new One-Red joint DVD license programme are also willing to make available separate licenses under these same patents ("Company Only Licenses").

Brand manufacturers and brand owners that enter into the new DVD patent licensing agreements with One-Red will benefit from the following royalty rates:
- DVD Video Player (Standard: $3.60; Compliant: $2.80)
- DVD-ROM Player (Standard: $2.91; Compliant $2.24)
- DVD Discs (Standard: $.04; Compliant $.03)

For its part, One-Blue, for which One-Red is the licensing agent, marked the first anniversary of its Blu-ray Disc product licensing programme on 1July 2012. Since launching the programme, the One-Blue global patent pool has signed on 15 licensors - Cyberlink, Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, JVC Kenwood, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Taiyo Yuden and Yamaha. To date, 88 manufacturers are listed as licensed by One-Blue from more than 15 countries.

Read background story Details of new One-Red BD Licensing scheme add to replicators' headaches.

Story filed 09.07.12