SAN FRANCISCO and DENVER, May 2, 2023 – Via Licensing Corporation (Via) and MPEG LA, L.L.C. (MPEG LA) today announced they have united to form Via Licensing Alliance LLC (Via LA), a new collaborative licensing organization with a rich portfolio of patents and intellectual property licensing programs, hundreds of licensors, and thousands of licensees.

Via LA combines the expertise, infrastructure, and relationships of two of the industry’s most successful patent pool administrators. MPEG LA’s MPEG-2 licensing program established the modern patent pool industry and helped produce one of the most widely employed standards in consumer electronics history, and Via’s AAC pool has continued to advance inclusive and efficient new patent licensing since launching its first pool over 20 years ago.

Patent pools support the industry by streamlining the highly complex, dispersed patent licensing process to deliver efficiency to accelerate technology adoption, maximize continuous value creation opportunities, and reduce friction and risk. Combining the teams and best practices of these two licensing pioneers creates new economies of scale and efficiencies that benefit the global innovation ecosystem.

Via LA expands these benefits by consolidating dozens of patent pools covering a broad range of technologies into one organization, further simplifying the licensing process for its pool participants. In addition, affiliates of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE: PHG), and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE: 6503) will convert their partial ownership in MPEG LA to partial ownership in Via LA. The participation of GE, Philips, and Mitsubishi Electric will provide continuity and deep industry experience to help take Via LA to the next level.

“Via LA combines the best capabilities in the licensing industry to deliver efficient, transparent, and balanced intellectual property solutions to thousands of partners around the world,” said Heath Hoglund, President, Via LA. “This pool of pools provides an efficient mechanism for innovators with broad portfolios to get their technologies to the mass market and enables easy access to a broad range of necessary IP for implementors with diverse product offerings.”

“Our two teams share similar strategies, cultures, and business models, so I am confident this will be a smooth transition into an even more valuable, independently managed licensing solution for the IP industry,” said Larry Horn, CEO, MPEG LA.

Heath Hoglund, who was President of Via prior to the combination, will serve as President of Via LA. Larry Horn is retiring as CEO of MPEG LA but will continue to serve as an advisor to Via LA.

The new company’s worldwide headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in Denver, London, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Washington, DC.

About Via Licensing Alliance
Via LA is the collaborative licensing leader, dedicated to accelerating global technology adoption, fostering participation, and generating return on innovation with balanced licensing solutions for innovators and manufacturers of all sizes around the globe. Via LA has operated dozens of licensing programs for a variety of technologies consisting of nearly 50,000 patents in over 130 countries with more than 500 patent holders and nearly 10,000 licensees. Via LA is an independently managed subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Inc., owned by industry-leading participants with over 25 years of intellectual property licensing leadership. For more information about Via LA, please visit www.Via-LA.com. Contact
Via Licensing Alliance
Liz Weber
+1 415-645-4124
Press@Via-LA.com

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SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2023 – Via Licensing Alliance LLC (Via LA), the collaborative licensing leader, announced today the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors: Patrick Patnode, President of GE Licensing, an affiliate of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE); Jako Eleveld, Vice President and Head of IP Licensing at Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE: PHG); and Keiko Higuchi, Senior Manager and Head of Patent Pools in the Corporate Licensing Division of the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE: 6503). Their appointment follows the conversion of partial ownership in MPEG LA to an ownership stake in Via LA by affiliates of GE, Philips, and Mitsubishi Electric in connection with the recent combination of Via Licensing Corporation and MPEG LA, L.L.C.

“I’m delighted to welcome Patrick, Jako, and Keiko to the Via LA Board,” said Andy Sherman, Chair of Via LA’s Board of Directors. “They have a track record of intellectual property leadership, deep industry expertise, and relationships throughout the global IP ecosystem that will add significant value for Via LA.”

Via LA is an industry solution that will enable collaborative innovation and benefit the entire global IP ecosystem of licensors and licensees. The new appointees will help the Via LA Board oversee the fulfillment of that mission.

About Patrick Patnode
Mr. Patnode serves as President of GE Licensing, leading a team of global licensing professionals focused on creating value from GE’s extensive portfolio of intellectual property. Under Mr. Patnode’s leadership, GE Licensing has expanded beyond traditional patent licensing to offer solutions to help partners access GE’s 40,000+ patents, and the inventions that come from GE’s Global Research Centers and across GE’s Business Units of GE Aerospace, GE Vernova, and GE Corporate. About Jako Eleveld
Mr. Eleveld serves as Vice President and Head of IP Licensing at Philips and has been on the executive management team of Philips Intellectual Property & Standards (IP&S) for almost 15 years. Philips IP&S is a leading industrial IP organization that handles all IP matters for Philips. As Head of IP Licensing, Mr. Eleveld leads a successful global team that develops new standards and technology based on Philips IP for various industries, and handles all related IP licensing and IP venturing for Philips. About Keiko Higuchi
Ms. Higuchi serves as Senior Manager and Head of Patent Pools in the Corporate Licensing Division of the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. Ms. Higuchi brings to the Board of Via LA more than two decades of industry experience and expertise leading intellectual property licensing and transactional initiatives on behalf of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. Prior to her role at Mitsubishi Electric, she held leadership positions at Renesas Electronics Corporation, as well as Megachips Corporation, where she gained extensive knowledge of licensing and IP transactions in the semiconductor industry. About Via Licensing Alliance
Via LA is the collaborative licensing leader, dedicated to accelerating global technology adoption, fostering participation, and generating return on innovation with balanced licensing solutions for innovators and manufacturers of all sizes around the globe. Via LA has operated dozens of licensing programs for a variety of technologies consisting of nearly 50,000 patents in over 130 countries with more than 500 patent holders and nearly 10,000 licensees. Via LA is an independently managed subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Inc., owned by industry-leading participants with over 25 years of intellectual property licensing leadership. For more information about Via LA, please visit www.Via-LA.com.

For additional information about the formation of Via LA, please see the press release: Via Licensing and MPEG LA Unite to Form Via Licensing Alliance, the Largest Patent Pool Administrator in the Consumer Electronics Industry, available here.

Contact
Via Licensing Alliance
Liz Weber
+1 415-645-4124
Press@Via-LA.com

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DENVER, CO, US – 2 October 2019 – World technology licensing leader MPEG LA today announced publication of a peer reviewed article in the October 2019 issue of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics on MPEG LA’s proprietary Increscent Therapeutics ligand-directed multiple payload oligonucleotide delivery platform.

“MPEG LA is proud to chart new territory with its development of a technology platform enabling drug developers to use oligonucleotide therapies to address new targets including cancer and those affecting the central nervous system,” said MPEG LA President and CEO Larry Horn.

According to principal author and innovator Dr. Jonathan Miles Brown, “the article concludes that delivery of multimeric oligonucleotide therapeutic agents to modulate gene expression or translation using MPEG LA’s Increscent Therapeutics may be of critical importance for effectively targeting cell/receptor types where ligand affinity, receptor copy number, or internalization rates are insufficient, as well as diseases where knockdowns of multiple genes or pathways are required.”

“In a departure from MPEG LA’s traditional pool licensing model that revolutionized licensing in the consumer electronics industry, MPEG LA’s Increscent Therapeutics platform is available for exclusive or nonexclusive licensing to the biopharma industry and poised to unlock and advance new healthcare opportunities,” said Kristin Neuman, MPEG LA’s Executive Director, Biotechnology Licensing.

An on-line version of the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics article “Ligand Conjugated Multimeric siRNAs Enable Enhanced Uptake and Multiplexed Gene Silencing” by Jonathan M. Brown, James E. Dahlman, Kristin K. Neuman, Carla A.H. Prata, Monika C. Krampert, Philipp M. Hadwiger and Hans-Peter Vornlocher may be found here.

Additional information about MPEG LA’s Increscent Therapeutics platform may be found here.

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“MPEG LA believes that to maximize the benefits of CRISPR, the market needs a transparent patent pool option in which all stakeholders participate and the market’s confusion and uncertainty concerning the patent landscape can be addressed.  Interim steps on which that result may be built can be a positive.  Among all the parties involved in CRISPR patent licensing, MPEG LA is unique in its independence and neutrality.  We are not aligned with any particular stakeholder.  The appointment of an independent and neutral administrator is important to ensuring that a pool is pro-competitive.  With our trusted track record and our existing worldwide infrastructure, we stand ready to assist all stakeholders with formation of a CRISPR patent pool that addresses competitive market needs and realities.”

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(DENVER, CO, US – 10 July 2017) – World licensing leader MPEG LA, LLC is pleased to announce that key CRISPR patent holders have submitted patents in response to MPEG LA’s call to participate in the creation of a global CRISPR-Cas9 Joint Licensing Platform and that patent submissions continue to be accepted.

“The enthusiastic response to MPEG LA’s patent pool initiative is further evidence of the widely held view that CRISPR is too important to be left at risk of endless patent battles and splintered licensing regimes and that a pool providing one-stop licensing efficiency and predictability to scientists and businesses worldwide represents the best hope to unleash its life-enhancing potential,” said Larry Horn, President and CEO of MPEG LA. “As MPEG LA’s objective is to provide worldwide access to as much CRISPR intellectual property as possible and the market will benefit from the viewpoints of all stakeholders in this voluntary ground floor opportunity to determine CRISPR’s future, the door remains open and additional patent submissions continue to be welcomed.”

Among those who have agreed to participate, MPEG LA welcomes the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, which has submitted key CRISPR-Cas9 patents for consideration with joint owners Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The Rockefeller University.

“We strongly support making CRISPR technology broadly available,” said Issi Rozen, Chief Business Officer of the Broad Institute. “The Broad Institute already licenses CRISPR-Cas9 non-exclusively for all applications, with the exception of human therapeutics, where we have significantly limited the exclusivity. We look forward to working with others to ensure the widest possible access to all key CRISPR intellectual property.”

“Regardless of the outcome of the various legal and administrative proceedings in the United States and Europe, many CRISPR patents owned by many different entities will be left standing and multiple licenses will still be necessary,” added Kristin Neuman, Executive Director, Biotechnology Licensing at MPEG LA. “Companies performing research and development the world over, including those who currently hold exclusive licenses, will benefit from the transparency of a pool and the ability to license the necessary patents in a single transaction on fair and predictable terms.”

Patent holders are encouraged to visit MPEG LA’s CRISPR page for the terms and procedures governing submissions and eligibility. At least one eligible patent asset is necessary to participate in the license development process, and eligibility will be determined by MPEG LA at no cost to submitters. Except for confidentiality, participation is without obligation or commitment until such time as an eligible patent holder may decide to join the license.

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(DENVER, CO, US – 25 April 2017) – World licensing leader MPEG LA, LLC today invited holders of CRISPR-Cas9 patents to participate in the creation of a global CRISPR-Cas9 Joint Licensing Platform that will make their groundbreaking technologies widely accessible.

“Pooling the foundational CRISPR patent rights under a single nonexclusive, cost-effective, transparent license will allow the market to focus on the creation of new products and therapies that accelerate and expand CRISPR’s deployment,” said Larry Horn, MPEG LA President and CEO. “Just as MPEG LA’s pioneering efforts to manage licensing overhead and mitigate litigation risk helped assure the success of digital video in the consumer electronics industry, the CRISPR-Cas9 Joint Licensing Platform can do the same for healthcare and other biotechnology industries but with an impact far more profound.”

“At the same time, both foundational and other patent owners would be rewarded for their inventions from their fair share of reasonable royalties from the pool and incentivized to develop more,” added Kristin Neuman, Executive Director, Biotechnology Licensing at MPEG LA. “As a voluntary market based business solution that balances access with incentive, an independently managed pool offers the best hope for addressing market and public interests in a way that will unleash CRISPR’s full potential for the benefit of humanity.”

MPEG LA welcomes CRISPR-Cas9 patent holders who would like to participate in this ground floor opportunity to create a Joint Licensing Platform to visit the CRISPR page for more information, including terms and procedures governing patent submissions and eligibility. At least one eligible patent is necessary to participate in the license development process, and eligibility will be determined by MPEG LA at no cost to submitters. Interested parties are asked to make their initial patent submissions by June 30, 2017. Although submissions will continue to be accepted in order to assure that the joint license includes as much relevant intellectual property as possible for the benefit of the market, those who submit patents by that date and are found eligible will be invited to attend an initial meeting with other eligible patent rights holders to explore the potential for joint terms on which the CRISPR-Cas9 Joint Licensing Platform may be offered. Except for confidentiality, participation is without obligation or commitment, including attendance at future meetings, until such time as an eligible patent holder may decide to join the Joint Licensing Platform.

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(DENVER, CO, US – 6 December 2016) – World licensing leader MPEG LA, LLC announced today an initiative to address the need for an efficient one-stop license alternative around CRISPR, a breakthrough technology that enables cellular DNA to be edited quickly and inexpensively. Some CRISPR patents are currently the subject of an interference proceeding (No. 106048) among various patent holders and applicants before the US Patent and Trademark Office.

“CRISPR’s wide range of potential applications in medicine and agriculture, and the steadily increasing volume of intellectual property in the field, point to the need for a one-stop licensing platform to reduce litigation risk and provide efficiency, transparency and predictability to scientists and businesses worldwide,” said MPEG LA President and CEO Larry Horn. “Our worldwide licensing infrastructure, trusted reputation for independence, experience, impartiality and results with patent pools, and relationships with industry and academia, including life sciences, position MPEG LA to deliver a licensing solution for the life sciences market as it did with digital video for the consumer electronics market.”

“We are mapping the CRISPR Cas-9 patent landscape as a tool for identifying essential patents to be licensed together in a single transaction for various genome engineering applications on a worldwide basis,” said Kristin Neuman, MPEG LA Executive Director of Biotechnology Licensing, “and will incorporate other genomic engineering technologies as they emerge.”

MPEG LA welcomes the participation of the CRISPR community. A mapping reference model defining the license coverage that will free developers to focus on creating quality-of-life enhancing products while compensating inventors is expected to be available soon. Updates may be found on MPEG LA’s CRISPR page. For more information, please email info@via-la.com.

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