France Télécom and TDF to join S2 licensing patent pool

ROME, ITALY: S2 Licensing announced at DVB World 2012 that two additional patent owners have agreed to license their essential DVB-S2 patents through its worldwide patent licensing program. France Télécom and TDF SAS will each license their DVB-S2 essential patents through S2 Licensing, joining current patent owners DTVG Licensing, Inc., the European Space Agency (ESA), and Radiotelevisione Italiana SpA (RAI).

“The addition of the France Télécom and TDF patents into our license offering will not result in additional royalties to present or future licensees,” explained John T. Whelan of S2 Licensing. “We are extremely excited to offer these essential patents through our licensing program. This adds to the already tremendous value offered to our customers.”

For the convenience of adopters, S2 Licensing offers a license under the combined portfolios (over 100 international patents) of DTVG Licensing, Inc., ESA, and RAI, and soon France Télécom and TDF. The license is available to all parties practicing or planning to practice the DVB-S2 standard, and provides favorable and non-discriminatory terms to all licensees.

For consumer applications, such as satellite television set-top box receivers, a license under the S2 Licensing patents is available for a one-time royalty of $0.50 for each encoder or decoder present in a product for quantities exceeding 500,000 over the term of the license, and US$1.00 per encoder or decoder in lower quantities. Professional products may be licensed under multiple licensing models, for the convenience and at the selection of the adopter.