Home > Understanding the Audio Codec Landscape Understanding the Audio Codec Landscape Unlock Hidden Insights in Audio Codec Patents Request a Demo LexisNexis®IPlytics™ reveals strategic insights into AAC, Opus, MPEG-H 3D Audio, and EVS—offering a complete view of pooled, declared and undeclared patents hidden beneath blanket disclosures. Whether you’re navigating licensing risks or benchmarking portfolios, IPlytics™ delivers clarity in the fragmented audio codec patent landscape. The Complex of Audio Codec Standard Patent Landscape AAC, Opus, MPEG-H, and EVS are driving the future of streaming, voice, and immersive applications. But with multiple patent holders, fragmented licensing pools, and increasing standard adoption across smart phones, computers, gaming consoles, TVs, automotive infotainment as well as streaming platforms and conferencing tools, the audio codec patent landscape has become significantly more complex. Gaining transparency into who owns what—especially when many patents remain undeclared—is now essential for confident, compliant innovation. Why Undeclared Patents Create Hidden Risks Many patents essential to audio codec standards are never formally declared to standard-setting organizations or included in patent pools. These undeclared patents introduce serious challenges: Uncertainty in SEP licensing negotiations Difficulty assessing true audio patent ownership and value Risk of costly infringement disputes or over-licensing Undeclared patents can sit quietly behind blanket disclosures—until they surface in pools or litigation. Without full visibility into pooled, declared and undeclared patents businesses operate in the dark. How IPlytics Identifies Undeclared Patents IPlytics applies a rigorous, AI-enhanced process to uncover standard-relevant patents that remain outside public declarations: Identify Using AI-based technology classification, we identified patents potentially related to the AAC, Opus, MPEG-H, EVS codecs. Validation Experts review these findings to confirm their relevance to the different audio codecs. Unrelated patents are removed from the training data, and the classification model is trained to on the updated data. Ownership Our approach simplifies the identification of patent holders. Thus, making it easier to understand “who owns what” within the dynamic audio codec patent ecosystem. Patent Pool Coverage The audio patent data enables the calculation of a patent pool’s share within the total stack of audio patents for each codec. Royalty Calculation The audio codec patent landscape can be analyzed in conjunction with public royalty rates from patent pools and FRAND litigation to estimate aggregate royalty rate ranges for each audio codec. Navigating the Patent and Licensing Landscape for Audio Codecs The audio codec industry faces increasing challenges as licensing complexities, undeclared patents, and shifting patent ownership create uncertainty for businesses. IPlytics provides clarity by uncovering potential Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) across AAC, Opus, MPEG-H, EVS, helping licensors, licensees, and legal professionals make data-driven decisions in SEP licensing and FRAND negotiations. Licensors and IP portfolio managers : Licensors and patent portfolio managers require a clear view of their audio patent portfolios and competitors’ ownership across audio codec technologies for AAC, Opus, MPEG-H, EVS. Identifying complete portfolios of audio coding patents is critical to maximizing licensing opportunities and strengthening market positioning. IPlytics delivers deep insights into audio codec patents, providing the clarity needed for effective licensing strategies. Licensees : Licensees must secure fair and transparent access to audio codec standards while avoiding excessive licensing fees. IPlytics enables businesses to evaluate the essentiality of audio codec patents, compare patent pool coverage (Via LA and Vectis IP), and track licensing trends to ensure compliance. The IPlytics Royalty Calculator allows estimating aggregate royalty rates to understand the SEP royalty burden. Law firms and SEP Consultants : Law firms and SEP consultants need comprehensive data on audio codec patents to support FRAND negotiations, assess litigation risks, calculate royalties and benchmark licensing terms. Without accurate insights into audio codec patent portfolios and enforcement activities, negotiating for SEP holders or defending implementers against patent assertions becomes challenging. IPlytics’ AI-powered essentiality scoring provides a decisive edge for legal teams navigating the evolving audio coding patent landscape. With IPlytics , you gain a single source of truth to make informed decisions across licensing, compliance, and risk strategy. Who Is Leading the Audio Codec Innovation Race? Innovation in AAC, Opus, MPEG-H, and EVS is being shaped by a small group of highly active patent owners. Organizations like Fraunhofer, Dolby, and Samsung lead in audio codec patents—reflecting deep R&D investments and strategic influence in standards development. The competitive landscape spans across global regions, with leading innovators headquartered in the United States, Europe, Japan, China, and South Korea. Understanding where innovation is coming from—and who holds the IP—is critical for navigating licensing, partnerships, and market positioning.IPlytics simplifies this analysis with transparency into audio codec patent ownership analytics, helping you see clearly who owns what across the dynamic and evolving audio codec landscape. Unlock the Full Audio Codec Patent Landscape Get a firsthand look at how IPlytics helps uncover declared and undeclared patents. Request a demo to explore the data, workflows, and tools that support smarter SEP licensing, litigation prep, and portfolio benchmarking.
