“By establishing a new licensing entity that offers a single license for Blu-ray DiscTM products at attractive rates, I am confident that it will foster the growth of the Blu-ray DiscTM market and serve the interest of all companies participating in this market, be it as licensee or licensor.” said Mr. Rosenthal.

The three founding companies believe that the introduction of this simplified one-stop shop product license will stimulate the growth of the market for Blu-ray DiscTM products.
Any holder of essential patents for Blu-ray DiscTM, DVD and CD patents is invited to join this licensing entity as a licensor and also as shareholder.

The fees for the new product licenses are US$9.50 for a Blu-ray DiscTM player and US$14.00 for a Blu-ray DiscTM recorder. The per disc license fees for Blu-ray DiscTM will be US$0.11 for a read only disc, US$0.12 for a recordable disc and US$0.15 for a rewritable disc. As a result of the efficiencies obtained with the combined license offering, the royalty rates for Blu-ray DiscTM products are expected to be at least 40% lower than the current cumulative royalty rates for individual Blu-ray DiscTM, DVD and CD format licenses.

The Blu-ray DiscTM product licensing program aims to create a level playing field in the market for Blu-ray DiscTM products by introducing special measures to encourage companies selling Blu-ray DiscTM products to comply with their license obligations. The program also includes measures to easily identify unlicensed products in the market and a system to address those who may not have obtained proper licenses for Blu-ray DiscTM products.