They did something similar with the Opus audio codec:<p><a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/1520/" rel="nofollow">https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/1520/</a><p>AV1 has some kind of patent-NATO thing where if you attack someone over AV1 patents they counter-attack with all their other patents, but does this count as an attack or would it only kick in if they sue someone?<p>> 1.3. Defensive Termination. If any Licensee, its Affiliates, or its agents initiates patent litigation or files, maintains, or voluntarily participates in a lawsuit against another entity or any person asserting that any Implementation infringes Necessary Claims, any patent licenses granted under this License directly to the Licensee are immediately terminated as of the date of the initiation of action unless 1) that suit was in response to a corresponding suit regarding an Implementation first brought against an initiating entity, or 2) that suit was brought to enforce the terms of this License (including intervention in a third-party action by a Licensee).
<i>Grabs popcorn</i><p>It will be interesting to see the fallout on this one. Will Qualcomm require licensing for AV1 implementers? How does this prevent AOM from retracting access to patents Qualcomm needs from other companies? Did Qualcomm literally approach every other company with private negotiations? And so on...
This might be why they were so slow to add hardware av1 decoding to their SoC. I guess legal compromised and said "you can implement av1, but we're still keeping the patents" and now we're in this situation.
In 99.99% of cases for Smartphones, you are going to sign and pay Qualcomm for all of its license anyway. Including all patent in 3G/4G and 5G, as well as other wireless tech, Image, Sensor, Battery and of course including Video Codec patents.<p>What is interesting ( to me at least ), their new Video Engine IP in Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 did not include H.266 / VVC.