What is AMR-WB+?
Who are the companies represented by VoiceAge?
Who needs to obtain a license to AMR-WB+ patents?
What's included with a patent license agreement?
Can a license be granted for intermediate products or implementations?
How do I get a license?
If I'm using the AMR-WB+ standard only for decoding signal, do I have to purchase the AMR-WB+ license?
What's the effect on licensees when new patents are added to the AMR-WB+ Patent Pool?
What are the pricing categories?
Are there any up-front fees associated with AMR-WB+ patent license agreement?
How does the pricing scheme work?
Is there a maximum royalty?
Why is there a higher maximum annual royalty for wireless, as opposed to non-wireless, use?
Do you charge content or use fees for AMR-WB+?
In the standard pricing category, do different encoder, decoder, or codec rates apply for individual versus commercial use?
What is AMR-WB+?
The Extended Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB+) standard is an audio codec that addresses mixed speech and audio content at low bit rates. As an extension of the AMR-WB standard, AMR-WB+ operates at variable bit rates and is capable of adapting to network congestion and desired quality of service. The codec is highly scalable, from 6 to 36 kbps for mono and 7-48 kbps for stereo.
AMR-WB+ utilizes a hybrid of ACELP® (Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction) and Transform Coded Excitation (TCX) technologies to provide consistent high-quality speech and audio for diverse applications while making efficient use of transmission capacity. AMR-WB+ is recommended for 3GPP applications such as Packet-Switched Streaming Service (PSS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based Messaging and Presence services. It is also recommended by the Digital Video Broadcast Project for DVB-H applications.
It is also perfectly suited to other low-bit-rate mixed-content audio applications such as streaming audio over the internet, audio storage and playback applications, digital radio broadcasting, archiving and distribution of narrative content and network-based language-learning applications.
AMR-WB+ was adopted by the 3GPP in September 2004 and is backward compatible with AMR-WB, the mandatory codec for wideband speech services in the 3GPP Release 5 specifications.
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Who are the companies represented by VoiceAge?
VoiceAge represents the three members of the joint patent pool: Ericsson, Nokia and VoiceAge.
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Who needs to obtain a license to AMR-WB+ patents?
Manufacturers or developers that integrate the AMR-WB+ encoder, decoder or encoder/decoder in their complete (or substantially complete) content applications and products for end-users and for which the use of AMR-WB+ without a license would necessarily and unavoidably infringe the licensed patents require an AMR-WB+ license.
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What's included with a patent license agreement?
The AMR-WB+ Patent License Agreement grants patent rights only, that is, the right to use patented technology of the AMR-WB+ licensors. No software code is delivered.
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Can a license be granted for intermediate products or implementations?
An AMR-WB+ license can be granted for certain implementations. An implementation means a decoder, encoder or other intermediate product that is not a complete, ready-to-use, end-user final product, for example, a plug-in to a content creation tool.
If an implementation meets both of the following conditions, then it must be covered by an AMR-WB+ patent license:
- It is sold, rented, leased or licensed to an end-user.
- It is used for one (1) application only.
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How do I get a license?
Contact us in any of the following ways:
Click Request Info Now here or on the left
Email: licensing@voiceage.com
Phone: +1.514.737.4940
Fax: +1.514.908.2037
Mail:
Licensing
VoiceAge Corporation
750 Lucerne, Suite 250
Montreal (Quebec) H3R 2H6
Canada
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If I'm using the AMR-WB+ standard only for decoding signals, do I have to purchase the AMR-WB+ license?
Yes, the AMR-WB+ license is required if you are only encoding audio signals, if you are only decoding, or if you are both encoding/decoding. Note that different rates apply to the mono and stereo decoder.
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What's the effect on existing licenses when new patents are added to the AMR-WB+ Patent Pool?
There is no incremental cost to existing licenses when new patents and licensors are added during the current term of the license.
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Pricing
What are the pricing categories?
There are two pricing categories:
- Standard rates, and
- Rates for personal computer products.
Category 1 (standard rates) applies to licensed products for which either channels (also called ports) or real-time channels can be counted. This includes applications for server-based streaming (PSS) like music, news or sports streaming and applications for mobile terminal-based encoding such as multimedia messaging services (MMS). The same rates apply for PSS and MMS encoders.
Category 2 applies to products for personal computers, for example, applications for download services like distribution of audio content. They are sold directly to individual consumers and are for non-commercial use only. For example, personal computers do not include PDAs and smart phones.
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Are there any up-front fees associated with an AMR-WB+ patent license agreement?
Yes, there is an initial administration fee of US$6,500 due upon execution of the license. This is a one-time payment and is not an annual fee. In addition to the initial fee, there is an annual minimum royalty fee of US$10,000. If the royalty fees paid in any one year are less than US$10,000, then at the end of the year, the License Administrator will charge and require payment of the difference. No portion of the annual fee is charged retroactively nor can any portion be carried forward.
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How does the pricing scheme work?
Royalty fees are calculated on the basis of per application per real-time channel volume. Each year, the number of real-time channels per application is counted, and the royalty rate is applied according to the real-time channel per application volume (please see the Licensing Terms for fees). An annual royalty cap applies (see next question). In each subsequent year, the count is reset to one (1), and the royalty rate applied is also reset. The same licensing terms and conditions apply to all licensees to provide convenient, fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory access to all the patents in the pool under a single license agreement.
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Is there a maximum royalty?
Yes. Royalty fees are calculated and must be paid on an annual basis starting from the date of signing the license contract. Different maximum annual royalty rates (“caps”) apply to each of the two pricing categories. In addition, for the standard rate category, there are two caps: one for wireless use and another for non-wireless use. The royalty cap applies annually and is independent of any royalties paid in the previous year. For information on the cap that applies to each pricing category, please see the Licensing Terms.
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Why is there a higher maximum annual royalty for wireless, as opposed to non-wireless, use?
The maximum annual royalty per licensee is higher for wireless use because of the higher volume of wireless applications.
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Do you charge content or use fees for AMR-WB+?
There are no royalties due on the distribution or use of audio content encoded with AMR-WB+ technology. Royalties are due only on the sale of AMR-WB+ encoders, decoders or codecs.
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In the standard pricing category, do different encoder, decoder or codec rates apply for individual versus commercial use?
No, the same rates apply to individual and commercial use.
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