CHDA Announces Plan for CBHD Patent License

CHDA (China High-definition DVD Industry Association) announces that it is issuing a call for patents (and patent applications) that are essential to CBHD (China Blue High-definition Disc) Standard for one-stop technology standard patent licensing.

CHDA begins, based on its procedure, to bring together the essential patent holders of significant new technology of high-definition optical disc based on blue laser in order to make convenient for manufactures (hereinafter called users) to adopt the standard in visual devices, discs and related implementations.

CHDA has entrusted Ministry of Information Industry Software and Integrated Circuit Promotion Center (CSIP) as a platform and established a patent pool management agency (hereinafter called CBHD Management Agency) for the purpose of handling the applications, evaluations of essential patents as well as other patent pool services.

After the call, CHDA will start the process of evaluating and determining patents that are essential to the standard determined by CHDA in order to include such patents in CBHD joint patent pool. This patent pool license provides users with fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to the new technology as a platform which substitutes individual license negotiations. A summary of processes plan for the patent pool licensing is attached.
Initial submissions: by December 31, 2008. Any party who believes it has a patent (or patent application) that is essential to CBHD Standard and wishes to join the CBHD patent pool is invited to submit to CBHD Management Agency for evaluation by independent patent experts (hereinafter called Evaluators).

Further information, along with terms and procedures governing patent submissions, can be found at “The Guideline for Evaluation of CBHD Essential Patents”,with which the CBHD Management Agency will provide on request.

Although submissions of the essential patents will continue to be accepted after that date of initial submissions, patent or patent application owners who submit patents or patent applications by that date which are determined to be essential will be invited to attend an initial meeting of essential patent holders expected to be held in the beginning of 2009.