Questions and Answers

1. What is the purpose of One-Blue?

One-Blue, LLC (One-Blue) is a company which has been established for the purpose of administering a one-stop shop licensing program for patents essential to Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) products and has expanded its licensing program to include Ultra HD Blu-ray™ (UHD) products. This one-stop shop license for BD and UHD hardware and software products covers UHD, BD, DVD and CD essential patents. The License for BD disc products covers BD essential patents, and the license for UHD disc products covers UHD essential patents.

2. When was the One-Blue licensing program launched?

One-Blue launched the BD product licensing program on July 1st, 2011 and launched the UHD product licensing program on July 1st, 2017.

3. Who are the current licensors of One-Blue?

The current licensors are Columbia Technology Ventures, Cyberlink Corporation, Dell Global B.V., Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd., HP Inc., Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd., JVCKENWOOD Corporation, LG Electronics Inc., Memory-Tech Holdings Inc, Panasonic Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Pioneer Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. and Yamaha Corporation. See also under Licensors.

4. What is an essential patent? Who determines that a patent is essential? What do companies have to prepare in order to apply to be a licensor?

In order to comply with antitrust regulations in major countries, only essential patents are included in the patent pool. The meaning of essentiality appears in the agreements in the definitions of “Technically Essential Patent(s)” and “Commercially Essential Patent(s)”. A determination whether or not a specific patent is essential to a particular standard (e.g., the BD standards created by the Blu-ray Disc Association) is done by an independent patent evaluator (who is often a patent lawyer). Companies which believe they have a patent essential to a standard in a BD or UHD product (i.e., CD, DVD, BD or UHD) and want to participate in the One-Blue patent pool, should submit their patents to the patent evaluation law firms which have been selected by One-Blue and which are listed on this website (http://www.one-blue.com/patent-evaluation/).

5. What are the royalty rates for the One-Blue licensing program?

You can find a complete overview of the royalty rates on this website (http://www.one-blue.com/royalty-rates/).

6. What product categories are licensed by One-Blue?

BD-ROM Disc, BD-R/RE Disc (including BDXL-R/RE Disc), BD-Player/Recorder, BD-PC Drive, BD Software, BD-PC, Aftermarket Drives Bundled with BD Software, BD Player in-Vehicle, UHD-ROM Disc, UHD Player, Combi UHD Player/BD-Recorder, UHD-PC Drive, UHD Software, UHD-PC, Aftermarket Drives Bundled with UHD Software and UHD Player in-Vehicle.

7. Can you provide a complete list of essential patents per product category in the One-Blue pool per product category?

Lists of essential patents per category and the corresponding licensors can be downloaded from this website after clicking on the “Patents” tab for each license program. All patents of our licensors essential to the standards licensed for the particular products are included in the licenses granted under the One-Blue license agreements irrespective of whether or not they appear in these patent lists.

8. What agreement types are offered by One-Blue and how do I obtain copies of form agreements to review?

One-Blue offers Manufacturer Registration Agreements, Brand Owner Registration Agreements and Past Use Agreements for BD-ROM Movie Disc, BD-ROM Data Disc, BD-R/RE Disc (including BDXL Disc), BD-Player/Recorder, BD-Drive, UHD-ROM Movie Disc, UHD-ROM Data Disc, UHD Player, Combi UHD Player/BD-Recorder, and UHD-Drive and offers License Agreements for BD-PC, BD-Software, Aftermarket BD Drive with Bundled BD Software, UHD-PC, UHD-Software and Aftermarket UHD Drive with Bundled UHD Software.   Copies of form agreements can be downloaded from this website after clicking on the “License Terms” tab for each license program.

9. What is meant by a “level playing field”?

A level playing field is an aspirational goal where all manufacturers or brand owners have entered into agreements with One-Blue, or bilateral agreements with all of One-Blue’s licensors, such that all BD and UHD products sold anywhere in the world are licensed.  A level playing field maintains the integrity of the licensing program by preventing free-riding.

10. Why does One-Blue refer to its licensing program as a “one-stop shop” notwithstanding the existence of the Premier BD Group’s BD licensing program?

The One-Blue licensing program is a “one-stop shop” with respect to the essential patents of the Licensors in the One-Blue pool.  One-Blue has always welcomed, and will continue to welcome, the companies participating in the Premier BD Group to join One-Blue as Licensors, and would also be open to a merger into one entity, because that will result in a better outcome for consumers and the industry as a whole.

11. What is per-batch licensing, and why is One-Blue using it?

Per-batch licensing is licensing per shipment.  The direct link between license documentation and a shipment, gives a potential control that enables border seizure of a shipment that is not accompanied by license documentation.

12. Will companies which already have bilateral license arrangements with one or more licensors pay the full royalty rate to One-Blue?

One-Blue offers pre-netting, which allows a licensee that has existing bilateral license arrangements in place with one or more licensors to request One-Blue to deduct from the royalty collected by One-Blue, the royalty share that the one or more licensors would have received from One-Blue on account of the licensee’s shipment.

13. Does pre-netting give cross-licensed companies an unfair advantage over other manufacturers?

No. To the contrary, pre-netting helps prevent companies that have already paid a licensor for patent rights from suffering the disadvantage of effectively paying the licensor twice. Moreover, many of the licensors have invested in R&D, have created essential patents on the basis of that R&D and may have made a bilateral arrangement between them on the basis of their exposure under the other party’s patents. Moreover, pre-netting is available to all licensees, regardless of whether they are licensed under a cross-license or under a one-way license. Consequently, any company that has already paid, or is obligated to separately pay, for a license will be protected from paying twice.

14. Will One-Blue do border detentions?

One-Blue will ask customs in the various countries to do border seizures to intercept unlicensed products with the aim to create a level playing field. This is in the interest of the whole market and ultimately to consumers.

15. Has One-Blue undertaken any enforcement litigation?

One-Blue and/or several of its licensors has undertaken, and will continue to undertake, patent infringement litigation in support of the licensing program.

16. Will One-Blue enforce against retailers?

One-Blue expects that it will be able to get all manufacturers and/or brand owners to sign-up on the basis of the strict enforcement regime in combination with border seizures, labels and logos, etc., on BD and UHD products so that retailers can easily determine whether products are licensed or not. In the unforeseen situation that a manufacturer or brand owner takes advantage of not being licensed, One-Blue reserves the right to enforce against retailers and others in the whole distribution chain.

17. Can I still take out separate licenses from the individual patent owners instead of dealing with One-Blue?

Yes. Each licensor is willing to license its essential patents directly if requested by a licensee.