Google licenses video codec from MPEG LA to bolster VP8

Patents management company MPEG LA announced agreements with Google, granting the Internet giant a license to techniques that may be essential to the VP8 video codec that the Internet giant backs. VP8 is a video compression technology that was developed by On2 Technologies, a company Google acquired in February 2010 for about US$125 million. WebM, an open-source project sponsored by Google for an open media file format, uses the open Vorbis audio codec and VP8, which Google released under a royalty-free license. Licensing spat slows progress In January 2011, Google said it would remove support in its Chrome browser for the H.264 codec and instead support open codecs like WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs. MPEG LA, however, countered in February that year with a call to owners of patents essential to the VP8 video codec specification, to facilitate development of a VP8 joint patent license. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here