23 March 2022. Following the facilitation process laid down in its statutes, MPAI has become aware of holders of patents potentially essential to two MPAI standards: Multimodal Conversation (MPAI-MMC) and Context-based Audio Enhancement (MPAI-CAE). Information on MPAI, its processes, and its standard can be found at https://mpai.community.

These Patent Holders have asked the MPAI secretariat to issue this Call on their behalf.

The Patent Holders are seeking a patent pool administrator (“Entity”) with the following characteristics:

  1. Has legal status.
  2. Has experience in patent licensing.
  3. Has experience in patent pools.
  4. Has appropriate internal technical skills.

The Patent Holders have taken the view that the Entity is expected to administer the licensing of both standards based on the high-level requirements of the MPAI-MMC and MPAI-CAE Framework Licences published at https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-cae/ and https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-mmc/. The Patent Holders expect to work with the selected Entity to facilitate a licensing program that responds to the requirements of the licensees while ensuring the commercial viability of the program. In the future, the coverage of the patent pool may be extended to new versions of MPAI-MMC and MPAI-CAE, and/or other MPAI standards.

Parties interested in being selected as Entity are requested to communicate, no later than 1 May 2022, their interest and provide appropriate material as a qualification to the MPAI Secretariat. The Secretariat will forward the received material to the Patent Holders. The Patent Holders may thereafter request further information, adopt a schedule for presentations by candidate Entities, select an Entity for negotiation for the formation of a patent pool, or undertake other steps not described in this Call for Patent Pool Administrator.

Further information on the MPAI IPR policy and the Framework Licence can be found at https://mpai.community/about/the-mpai-patent-policy/. Any questions as to this Call or other matters related to MPAI licensing will be referred by the Secretariat to the Patent Holders.

Please submit the response to this Call for Patent Pool Administrator, or any related communication, to pooling@mpai.community.