Opus专利列表

https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/search/?option=document_search&document_search=draft-ietf-codec-opus

Broacom 的专利是

美国专利号：US 7,353,168

名称：Method and apparatus to eliminate discontinuities in adaptively filtered signals

Gualcomm 的专利是

美国专利号：US 7,519,535;
            US 5 ,579,433; 
            US 5,414,796;
            US 5,657,420;
            US 5,341,456;
            US 5,742,734  

Skype 专利是
PI 0721316-6 (Brazil)
2679476 (Canada)
200780051547.2 (China)
07872475.4 (Europe)
2009-550325 (Japan)
12/006057 (US)

US-2008-0201137-A1
US-2010-0174535-A1
US-2010-0174534-A1
US-2010-0174547-A1
US-2010-0174532-A1
US-2010-0174537-A1
US-2010-0174542-A1
US-2010-0174531-A1
US-2010-0174541-A1
US-2010-0174538-A1
US-2011-0077940-A1

 

 

Opus licensing

Opus has a freely available specification, a BSD licensed, high-quality reference encoder and decoder, and protective, royalty-free licenses for the required patents. The copyright and patent licenses for Opus are automatically granted to everyone and do not require application or approval. The Opus FAQ has more information on why Opus is freely licensed.

 

In brief: (see below for details)
	You can encode or decode Opus-compatible streams for any purpose at no cost.
	You can integrate the reference Opus encoder and decoder in any application, program, or product, even commercially, at no cost.
	You can create your own compatible implementations of the Opus specification and give them away or sell them.
	You may not do these things if you engage in Opus-related patent litigation against any user of Opus.

 

Licensing details

Copyright

Specification

The specification is freely available as part of IETF RFC 6716. The RFC includes the reference implementation, which is available under the three-clause BSD license (see below).

Implementation

Both the reference implementation and the revised implementations on opus-codec.org are available under the three-clause BSD license. This BSD license is compatible with all common open source and commercial software licenses.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: - Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. - Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. - Neither the name of Internet Society, IETF or IETF Trust, nor the names of specific contributors, may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Tools

Most of the command-line Ogg-based tools that are shipped as part of the separate opus-tools package are also released under the three-clause BSD license. The only exception is the opusinfo tool, which is released under the GPLv2 license. Proprietary software developers wishing to use Opus may copy code from opusenc and opusdec, but they may not copy code from the opusinfo tool to build their applications.

Patents

Opus is covered by several patents. These patents are available under open-source compatible, royalty-free licenses. If you are not trying to attack Opus with your patents, you will not have problems with these licenses.

Xiph.Org Foundation

The Xiph.Org foundation has several patent applications on techniques used in Opus. When issued, these patents will be automatically available under the terms provided in the below license. The license covers the listed patent applications, along with any other patent or application covering Opus that is owned by Xiph.Org.

Xiph.Org
Patents/Applications covered

• US 61/284,154
• US 61/450,041
• US 61/450,053
• US 61/450,060
• and any other applicable

License Grant. Xiph.Org Foundation (“Xiph”) hereby grants to you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this license) license under Licensed Patents to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, transfer, and otherwise run, modify (in a way that still complies with the Specification), and reproduce any Implementation.

Definitions. Specification means, and includes the following, both individually and collectively, (a) any standard specification of the Opus codec adopted by the IETF Codec Working Group (“Standard”) and (b) any reference implementation (each, a “Reference Implementation”) published by the IETF Codec Working Group in the request for comments (“RFC”) issued by the IETF for the Specification draft for which this License is issued, or any RFC that is issued as an update or new version thereof. An Implementation means any Reference Implementation, or another implementation that complies with the Specification. Licensed Patents means all patents currently owned by Xiph or acquired hereafter that Xiph has the right to license as set forth above and that are necessarily infringed by the Specification, where “necessarily infringed” means: in the case of (a) above, there is no commercially viable means of implementing the Specification without infringing such patent; in the case of (b) above, use of the reference implementation to the extent it infringes such patent.

Termination. If you, directly or indirectly via controlled affiliate or subsidiary, agent, or exclusive licensee, file a Claim for patent infringement against any entity alleging that an Implementation in whole or in part constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, or inducement of patent infringement (a “Claim”), provided that a Reference Implementation also infringes the patents asserted in the Claim, then any patent rights granted to you under this License shall automatically terminate retroactively as of the date you first received the grant. Claims made against an Implementation in part will only trigger termination if the Implementation in part was done for the purpose of combining it with other technology that complies with the Specification so that the technology’s ultimate use will be consistent with the Standard as a whole.

This license is also filed on the  IETF site

Broadcom

Broadcom has both issued patents and outstanding applications covering Opus. These are available under the same license as the Xiph.Org patents. The license covers the listed patents and patent applications, along with any other patent or application covering Opus that is owned by Broadcom.

Broadcom
Patents/Applications covered

• US 61/406,106
• US 61/394,842
• US 7,353,168
• and any other applicable

License Grant. Broadcom Corporation (“Broadcom”) hereby grants to you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this license) license under Licensed Patents to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, transfer, and otherwise run, modify (in a way that still complies with the Specification), and reproduce any Implementation.

Definitions. Specification means, and includes the following, both individually and collectively, (a) any standard specification of the Opus codec adopted by the IETF Codec Working Group (“Standard”) and (b) any reference implementation (each, a “Reference Implementation”) published by the IETF Codec Working Group in the request for comments (“RFC”) issued by the IETF for the Specification draft for which this License is issued, or any RFC that is issued as an update or new version thereof. An Implementation means any Reference Implementation, or another implementation that complies with the Specification. Licensed Patents means all patents currently owned by Broadcom or acquired hereafter that Broadcom has the right to license as set forth above and that are necessarily infringed by the Specification, where “necessarily infringed” means: in the case of (a) above, there is no commercially viable means of implementing the Specification without infringing such patent; in the case of (b) above, use of the reference implementation to the extent it infringes such patent.

Termination. If you, directly or indirectly via controlled affiliate or subsidiary, agent, or exclusive licensee, file a Claim for patent infringement against any entity alleging that an Implementation in whole or in part constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, or inducement of patent infringement (a “Claim”), provided that a Reference Implementation also infringes the patents asserted in the Claim, then any patent rights granted to you under this License shall automatically terminate retroactively as of the date you first received the grant. Claims made against an Implementation in part will only trigger termination if the Implementation in part was done for the purpose of combining it with other technology that complies with the Specification so that the technology’s ultimate use will be consistent with the Standard as a whole.

This license is also filed on the  IETF site

Microsoft

Microsoft acquired patents and applications related to Opus through their purchase of Skype. These patents (and any other Microsoft might have had) are available under a different, but still royalty-free, license detailed below. The license covers the listed patent applications, along with any other patent or application covering Opus that is owned by Microsoft.

Microsoft
Patents/Applications covered

• US-2008-0201137-A1
• US-2010-0174535-A1
• US-2010-0174534-A1
• US-2010-0174547-A1
• US-2010-0174532-A1
• US-2010-0174537-A1
• US-2010-0174542-A1
• US-2010-0174531-A1
• US-2010-0174541-A1
• US-2010-0174538-A1
• US-2011-0077940-A1
• and any other applicable

Microsoft Patent Terms for draft-ietf-codec-opus-10 Date: 1-25-12

1. Patent Promise.

1.1. Patent Promise Grant. Subject to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, I make the following promises:

1.1.1. Decoder Patent Promise. I, on behalf of myself and my successors in interest and assigns, irrevocably promise not to assert my Necessary Decoder Claims against you for your Decoder Implementation, subject to the following. This is a personal promise directly from me to you, and you acknowledge as a condition of benefiting from it that no rights from me are received from suppliers, distributors, or otherwise in connection with this promise. This promise also applies to your making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing an implementation of any subsequent version of the Decoder Specification published by the IETF Codec Working Group 1) only to the extent that it implements the Decoder Specification, and 2) so long as all required portions of the Decoder Specification are implemented. This promise does not extend to any portion of a subsequent version of the Decoder Specification published by the IETF Codec Working Group that was not included in the Decoder Specification.

1.1.2. Encoder Patent Promise. I, on behalf of myself and my successors in interest and assigns, irrevocably promise not to assert my Necessary Encoder Claims against you for your Encoder Implementation, subject to the following. This is a personal promise directly from me to you, and you acknowledge as a condition of benefiting from it that no rights from me are received from suppliers, distributors, or otherwise in connection with this promise. This promise also applies to your making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing an Encoder Implementation that also produces a bitstream that can be decoded by any subsequent version of the Decoder Specification published by the IETF Codec Working Group only to the extent that the Encoder Implementation produces a bitstream that can be decoded by a Decoder Implementation. This promise does not extend to any portion of an Encoder Implementation that is not included in the Reference Implementation.

1.2. Conditions.

1.2.1. Availability. If you have Necessary Decoder Claims or Necessary Encoder Claims, the promises set forth in Section 1 will become effective starting on the date that you make your Necessary Decoder Claims available, via a publicly available written statement, to all implementers for Decoder Implementations and your Necessary Encoder Claims available, via a publicly available written statement, to all implementers for Encoder Implementations on reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty-free licensing terms. The promises set forth in Section 1 will remain in effect so long as you continue to make such claims available for Decoder Implementations and Encoder Implementations under reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty-free licensing terms.

1.2.2. Additional Conditions. This promise is not an assurance (i) that any of my issued patent claims covers a Decoder Implementation or an Encoder Implementation or are enforceable or (ii) that a Decoder Implementation or an Encoder Implementation would not infringe intellectual property rights of any third party. Notwithstanding the personal nature of my promise, this promise is intended to be binding on any future owner, assignee or exclusive licensee who has been given the right to enforce any Necessary Claims against third parties.

1.3. Termination. All rights, grants, and promises made by me to you under Section 1 are immediately terminated if you or your agent file, maintain, or voluntarily participate in a lawsuit against me or any person or entity asserting that its Decoder Implementation infringes Necessary Decoder Claims or its Encoder Implementation infringes Necessary Encoder Claims, unless that suit was in response to a corresponding suit regarding a Decoder Implementation or Encoder Implementation first brought against you. In addition, all rights, grants, and promises made by me to you under Section 1 are terminated if you or your agent seek to license Necessary Decoder Claims for Decoder Implementations or Necessary Encoder Claims for Encoder Implementations on a royalty-bearing basis. This Agreement may also be terminated, including back to the date of non-compliance, because of non-compliance with any other term or condition of this Agreement.

1.4. Bankruptcy. Solely for purposes of Section 365(n) of Title 11, United States Bankruptcy Code and any equivalent law in any foreign jurisdiction, this promise will be treated as if it were a license and you may elect to retain your rights under this promise if I (or any owner of any patents or patent applications referenced herein), as a debtor in possession, or a bankruptcy trustee, reject this non-assert.

2. Patent License Commitment. On behalf of me and my successors in interest and assigns, I agree to offer alternative reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty-bearing licensing terms 1) to my Necessary Decoder Claims solely for your Decoder Implementation and 2) to my Necessary Encoder Claims solely for your Encoder Implementation.

3. Past Skype Declarations. You may, at your option, continue to rely on the terms set forth in Skype’s past declarations made to IETF for the Opus Audio Codec, subject to the terms of those declarations and in lieu of the terms of this Agreement solely for the patents set forth in those declarations.

4. Good Faith Obligation. I agree that I have not and will not knowingly take any action for the purpose of circumventing my obligations under this Agreement.

5. Disclaimers. I expressly disclaim any warranties (express, implied, or otherwise), including implied warranties of merchantability, non-infringement, fitness for a particular purpose, or title, related to the Decoder Specification or Reference Implementation. The entire risk as to implementing or otherwise using the Decoder Specification, Decoder Implementation, Reference Implementation, or Encoder Implementation is assumed by the implementer and user. IN NO EVENT WILL ANY PARTY BE LIABLE TO ANY OTHER PARTY FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY FORM OF INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER FROM ANY CAUSES OF ACTION OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THIS AGREEMENT, WHETHER BASED ON BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. All of my obligations under Section 1 and 2 regarding the transfer, successors in interest, or assignment of Necessary Claims will be satisfied if I notify the transferee or assignee of any patent that I know contains Necessary Decoder Claims or Necessary Encoder Claims of the obligations under Sections 1 and 2. Nothing in this Agreement requires me to undertake a patent search.

6. Definitions.

6.1. Agreement. “Agreement” means this document, which sets forth the rights, grants, promises, limitations, conditions, obligations, and disclaimers made available for the particular Specification.

6.2. Control. “Control” means direct or indirect control of more than 50% of the voting power to elect directors of that corporation, or for any other entity, the power to direct management of such entity.

6.3. Decoder Implementation. “Decoder Implementation” means making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any conformant implementation of the Decoder Specification 1) only to the extent it implements the Decoder Specification and 2) so long as all required portions of the Decoder Specification are implemented.

6.4. Decoder Specification. “Specification” means draft-ietf-codec-opus-10 specification.

6.5. Encoder Implementation. “Encoder Implementation” means making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing a 1) software implementation that produces a bitstream that can be decoded by a Decoder Implementation, and 2) where the purpose of the Encoder Implementation is to produce a bitstream for decoding by a Decoder Implementation.

6.6. I, Me, or My. “I,” “me,” or “my” refers to the party making this declaration, and any entity that I Control.

6.7. Necessary Decoder Claims. “Necessary Claims” are those patent claims that a party owns or controls, including those claims acquired after the date of this declaration, that are necessary to implement the required portions (including the required elements of optional portions) of the Decoder Specification that are described in detail and not merely referenced in the Specification.

6.8. Necessary Encoder Claims. “Necessary Encoder Claims” are those patent claims that a party owns or controls, including those claims acquired after the date of this declaration, that are necessarily infringed by the Reference Implementation.

6.9. Reference Implementation. “Reference Implementation” means the reference encoder version in draft-ietf-codec-opus-10 as published by the IETF Codec Working Group as of October 31, 2011.

6.10. You or Your. “You,” “you,” or “your” means any person or entity who exercises patent rights granted under this Agreement, and any person or entity you Control.