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.

To access CBHD Management Agency, CSIP, Please contact:
Ms.Wang Xiao, Ms.Du Jiao, the Administration Section
Tel: 86-10-63951881-8109/8110
Fax: 86-10-63973485
E-mail: wangx@csip.org.cn; duj@csip.org.cn
Post Add：Bo Wang Yuan 10, No. 5 Yang Fang Dian East Road HaiDian District, Beijing 100038,China

    CBHD Standard (summary) CBHD is the name of a next generation optical disc format developed by CHDA, a group of the world’s leading consumer electronics, information technology and media manufacturing companies/organizations. The format is developed to enable recording, re-writing and playback of high-definition video as well as storing large amounts of data. The new format uses a blue laser with a short wave length 405nm allowing large amounts of data to be packed in high density and stored on a standard size disc. CBHD Standard refers generally to:
(a) a rewritable optical disc, a recordable optical disc and a read-only optical disc;
(b) recording methods;
(c) methods of playing such discs.
    CBHD-ROM Standard (summary) CBHD-ROM is the name of China Blue High-Definition ROM Disc. The format is developed to enable playback of pre-recorded high-definition video as well as storing large amounts of data. The new format uses a blue laser with a short wave length 405nm allowing large amounts of data to be packed in high density and stored on a standard size disc. The CBHD-ROM Standard refers generally to: (a) A read-only optical disc; (b) Pre-recording methods; (c) Methods of playing such discs.
 
ATTACHMENT
Following is a summary of the plan for licensing of CBHD-ROM essential patents:

1. Objective:
    To establish a pool of essential patents in China that are necessary for manufacturing the products based on CBHD-ROM Standard in order to provide users with fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to as much essential patents as possible under one license.

2. Licensed patents:
    Essential patents may consist of issued or otherwise enforceable patents having one or more claims that are infringed by use or implementation of the CBHD-ROM Standard as embodied in the following documents: (subject to modification, alteration and addition)

    Following documents are published by DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation, DVD FLLC. There is English version only.
DVD Specifications for China High Density Read-Only Disc
C-HD-DVD ROM: Part 1: Physical Specification. V10.0
  　 　    Part 2: File System Specification. V10.0
C-HD-DVD Video: Part 3: Video Specification. V10.0
Following documents are published by Beijing Optical Disc Consulting Co., Ltd (BOC).There is Chinese version only.
China Blue High-definition Read-only Disc Specifications:
  　 　   Part 1: Physical Specifications Ver. 1.0 (No: CHDA.BHD.001)
  　 　   Part 3: Video Specifications Ver. 1.0 (No: CHDA.BHD.003)  
It could be assured that the license development process is not only for those who currently have the patents, but also for any owner of a patent application with claims that the owner believes are potentially essential to the Standard and likely to issue in a patent in near future, so both of them are welcomed to submit their patents for an evaluation of their essentiality by Evaluators in order to participate in the license development process. (However, finally, only issued patents would be included in the patent pool, if a patent application with essential claims is not issued as a patent or is found not to contain essential claims when it is subsequently issued as a patent, it will no longer provide a basis for participation.)

3. Organization
    The patent pool may be required at least the following functions:

    First, CHDA makes a call described in this announcement for the submission of patents (or patent applications) for an evaluation of their essentiality by Evaluators and inclusion in the patent pool if determined to be essential. CHDA also facilitates the evaluation process, convenes the initial group of essential patent (and patent application) holders and processes their deliberations to conclude terms of a joint license.

    Second, the Evaluators, appointed by CHDA evaluate patents (and patent applications) for essentiality with respect to the CBHD-ROM Standard. Any party that believes it has essential patents (or patent applications) is invited to submit them for evaluation and inclusion in accordance with the terms and procedures governing submissions.

    Third, an initial group of essential patent (or patent application) holders who agree to the terms governing the submission of patents (or patent applications), and whose patents have been evaluated and determined as such essential patents by the Evaluators are convened to decide licensing terms. Patent evaluations and submissions may continue for later inclusion and participation by patent owners. After joint license terms are decided, evaluations continue throughout the course of the license in order to include as much essential patents as possible.

    Fourth, a licensing management agency will be determined by the initial group of patent holders. The licensing management agency will be granted non-exclusive sublicensing rights from the essential patent owners under licensed patents in order to sublicense those patents under terms of the joint patent license and will actively promote the licensing program, collect royalties from users by one stop patent payment for the benefit of the patent owners.

    Fifth, an advisors committee consisting of representatives of the essential patent owners, government, CHDA and legal expert will supervise certain activities of the licensing management agency.
 
4. Licensing details (conditions)
    To be determined by the essential patent owners.