Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Sound & Video Contractor.
Dolby Laboratories has filed a lawsuit against Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, over its use of HEVC and the AV1 codec. The suit, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, alleges that Snap’s use of the technologies infringes on four of Dolby’s patents.
“[AV1 developer Alliance for Open Media] does not own all patents practiced by implementations of the AV1 codec,” reads the filing. “Rather, the AV1 specification was developed after many foundational video coding patents had already been filed, and AV1 incorporates technologies that are also present in HEVC. Those technologies are subject to existing third-party patent rights and associated licensing obligations.”
“Snap’s software further tracks whether AV1 decoding is supported on a given device to stream AV1 video when appropriate,” says Dolby. “Despite these efforts, Snap remains unlicensed. Snap has continued to use Dolby’s patented technology without paying any royalties.”
