Have the patents for VP9 expired yet?
NO! ☹️ (however, these patents may not be needed for VP9, they may just be a speculation) 🙂
The VP9 codec was created by the AOM (Alliance for Open Media), they stated that the codec violates no patents when it was ratified.
Since then however Sisvel has created a patent pool of companies that claim that VP9 violates their patents. This Wiki article lists these patents, derived from: https://www.sisvel.com/licensing-programmes/audio-and-video-coding-decoding/video-coding-platform/#tab-patents. There could be patents registered elsewhere which are not listed here. Their dates will be added later.
It is not clear if these patents are legit or not, since many were (or are being) invalidated. Also note that the Sisvel patent pool includes expired patents (omitted in this article).
Note that AOMedia released a statement about Sisvel patent list (https://aomedia.org/press%20releases/the-alliance-for-open-media-statement/).
This is not legal advice. Here's my legal advice: call your lawyer.
European patents
edit- 2025-08-16: EP 1781042
- 2030-06-17: EP 2443835 - lawsuit
- 2031-05-12: EP 2571269 - lawsuit
- 2031-05-12: EP 3119091 - lawsuit
- 2031-05-12: EP 3128755 - lawsuit
- 2031-08-17: EP 2608540 - on November 2023, the European Patent Office announced the revocation of all claims of EP 3402195 which is in the same family of EP 2608540.
US patents
editUS patents only, look them up on https://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair. https://www.uspto.gov/patent/laws-and-regulations/patent-term-calculator contains instructions for calculating when patents expire.
| Patent no. | Filing or 371 ©Date | Earliest Publication Date | Issue Date of Patent | Expires | Patent holder | Title of Invention | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US10297008 | 2025-11-07 | ||||||
| US10499058 | 2025-05-11 | ||||||
| US9294771 | 2025-12-11 | ||||||
| US10362311 | 2032-06-20 | lawsuit | |||||
| US9319694 | 2032-06-20 | lawsuit | |||||
| US9661335 | 2032-06-20 | lawsuit | |||||
| US9654783 | 2032-06-20 | lawsuit | |||||
| US7319415 | 2025-05-04 | ||||||
| US10178393 | 2030-01-18 | same family as of US8867854 | |||||
| US10321137 | 2029-11-21 | same family as of US8867854 | |||||
| US8867854 | 2031-05-16 | invalid, see https://www.unifiedpatents.com/insights/2021/10/8/another-etri-chinese-patent-held-invalid and https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/ptab/case/IPR2020-01048 | |||||
| US9369737 | 2029-10-01 | same family as of US8867854 | |||||
| US9407937 | 2029-10-01 | same family as of US8867854 | |||||
| US9942554 | 2029-10-01 | same family as of US8867854 | |||||
| US10129549 | 2031-04-11 | lawsuit | |||||
| US10123025 | 2031-04-11 | lawsuit | |||||
| US10148968 | 2031-04-11 | lawsuit | |||||
| US7515635 | 2026-02-13 | confirmed invalid in March 2023: https://www.unifiedpatents.com/insights/2023/4/17/ip-bridge-patent-confirmed-invalid | |||||
| US8009733 | 2026-09-03 | same family as of US7515635 | |||||
| US8184697 | 2026-09-10 | same family as of US7515635 | |||||
| US8204112 | 2026-10-08 | same family as of US7515635 | |||||
| US8223841 | 2026-11-05 | same family as of US7515635 | |||||
| US9402087 | 2030-11-05 | ||||||
| US10051283 | 2031-11-27 | ||||||
| US10298954 | 2029-11-04 | ||||||
| US9654798 | 2029-11-10 | ||||||
| US9674551 | 2029-09-01 | ||||||
| US9838696 | 2029-09-01 | ||||||
| US9854250 | 2029-09-01 | ||||||
| US8818114 | 2031-03-18 | ||||||
| US9148660 | 2029-09-24 | ||||||
| US9491467 | 2029-09-24 | ||||||
| US9369714 | 2030-05-13 | ||||||
| US9992510 | 2030-01-07 | ||||||
| US9070179 | 2030-01-15 | ||||||
| US9363531 | 2030-01-15 | ||||||
| US9420304 | 2030-01-15 | ||||||
| US9445118 | 2030-01-15 | ||||||
| US8976863 | 2032-02-24 | ||||||
| US9392300 | 2029-10-23 | ||||||
| US9781445 | 2030-06-27 | ||||||
| US9794590 | 2030-06-27 | ||||||
| US9955182 | 2030-06-13 | ||||||
| US9137546 | 2031-01-19 | ||||||
| US9628815 | 2029-10-07 | ||||||
| US9565444 | 2030-10-01 | ||||||
| US9549190 | 2032-12-30 | ||||||
| US9609334 | 2030-10-01 | ||||||
| US9609335 | 2030-10-01 | ||||||
| US9479791 | 2031-05-25 | lawsuit | |||||
| US9532065 | 2031-05-12 | lawsuit | |||||
| US9787988 | 2031-05-12 | lawsuit | |||||
| US9113138 | 2032-06-14 | ||||||
| US9113139 | 2031-11-12 | ||||||
| US9143777 | 2030-09-24 | ||||||
| US9154779 | 2030-09-24 | ||||||
| US9294768 | 2030-09-24 | ||||||
| US9392282 | 2030-09-24 | ||||||
| US9148659 | 2030-09-24 | ||||||
| US9973753 | 2031-03-31 | ||||||
| US10390011 | 2031-03-31 | ||||||
| US10412385 | 2031-03-31 |