26 March 2004

Denver, CO (March 26, 2004) - MPEG LA, LLC today announced a plan for providing fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory worldwide access to patents that are essential to Proposed Standard VC-9 submitted to SMPTE Technology Committee C24(2004-03-19), also known as Proposed SMPTE Standard for Television: VC-9 Compressed Video Bitstream Format and Decoding Process, as it may be amended (VC-9 Specification). The first step calls for those with patents that they believe are essential to the VC-9 Specification to submit them for an evaluation of essentiality by independent patent experts. An initial group of patent holders whose patents are determined to be essential will be convened within 30-45 days to begin considering terms of a joint license, but the process will remain open and submissions will continue to be welcome.

"This is an affirmation of the service that MPEG LA provides," said MPEG LA CEO Baryn S. Futa. "Our business is to facilitate and offer non-exclusive independently administered licensing alternatives to those that exist in the current market for a variety of technologies that users may choose based on their own unique needs. Wherever a joint licensing alternative would be of convenience to users, MPEG LA is pleased to play its part in bringing together the essential patent holders in order to facilitate its creation."

"MPEG LA's call for essential patents is an important step toward offering a joint patent license on fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory terms for the convenience of the marketplace," said Amir Majidimehr, Corporate Vice-President of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft Corp. "We recognize MPEG LA's important role as independent facilitator and will continue to support their process."

Any party that believes it has a patent that is essential for the VC-9 Specification and would like to join a patent portfolio license upon successful evaluation is invited to submit such patent for an evaluation of essentiality by MPEG LAs patent experts. Initial submissions are requested as soon as possible. Those who are interested may request a copy of the terms and procedures governing patent submissions by going to www.mpegla.com, Licenses in Development, then VC-9.