Most streaming producers adopted HLS and DASH without any concern about intellectual property issues. Though MPEG LA formed a DASH Pool in 2015 it seemed to have died a quiet death in August 2019.
Now one of the pool members, Helios Digital, is suing Crackle, Vudu, and Showtime Digital for infringing their DASH patents. As I state in my article on the implications of these suits on StreamingMedia.com, “While these suits percolate through the system, this leaves many larger DASH users wondering when they’ll see a complaint while the rest of us wonder “what happens now?”
If you’re a DASH user (or even HLS), check out the article here. It looks likely that DASH and HLS may come with a royalty obligation.