Speex dev - Jun 2008 - Speex

Dear Speex developer(s),
 
We are currently in the process of evaluating speech codecs for the
transmission of wideband speech (fs=16kHz) at bitrates lower than 32
kb/s. Speex is a contender for this task. 
 
Practically we would have to port Speex to a specific 16 bit DSP if we
would go for this. We should be able to handle this.
 
But we would like to ask for your opinion regarding patent issues. If we
go on the market with a Speex solution we would ideally reach reach
sales of 1 million pcs/year. This could trigger a patent lawsuit where a
third party holding a relevant or non-relevant patent would try to get a
share of our profit. We would of course not like this situation
therefore we would like to ask you how you see the risks for the
emergence of such a situation. More specifically:
 
- Do you know of any patents that might be used against a Speex-based
product? I assume that Speex is not violating any patents but regarding
to US patent lawsuits everything is possible, the judges/jurys have
litttle technical insight.
 
- Are there any products on the market, selling in large quantities,
that incorporate Speex?
 
Best regards and thank you in advance,
 
 
Erik W. Rasmussen
Senior Research Engineer
Technology Research
 
GN Netcom A/S
Lautrupbjerg 7
DK-2750 Ballerup
Denmark
 
Tel.  +45 45 75 88 88
Dir.  +45 45 75 91 22
Mob.  +45 29 13 09 90
Fax.  +45 45 75 88 89
 
erasmussen at gn.com <mailto:erasmussen at gn.com> 
www.gn.com <http://www.gn.com/> 
 
Global no. 1 in headsets!
 
 
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Erik W. Rasmussen a ?crit :
> We are currently in the process of evaluating speech codecs for the
> transmission of wideband speech (fs=16kHz) at bitrates lower than 32
> kb/s. Speex is a contender for this task.
Glad to hear that.
> But we would like to ask for your opinion regarding patent issues. If we
> go on the market with a Speex solution we would ideally reach reach
> sales of 1 million pcs/year. This could trigger a patent lawsuit where a
> third party holding a relevant or non-relevant patent would try to get a
> share of our profit. 
The sad reality is that anyone can be sued for pretty much anything with
patents, even when paying for patent licenses on a certain standard
(e.g. some unknown companies shows up and think it too should get a
piece of the pie). That being said, I don't think Speex really increases
that risk.
> We would of course not like this situation
> therefore we would like to ask you how you see the risks for the
> emergence of such a situation. More specifically:
>  
> - Do you know of any patents that might be used against a Speex-based
> product? I assume that Speex is not violating any patents but regarding
> to US patent lawsuits everything is possible, the judges/jurys have
> litttle technical insight.
I do not know of any patent that Speex would be infringing. More
specifically, I have mainly written Speex based on technologies from the
80s for which any patent would have expired. For example, patents are
the reason Speex does not use ACELP.
> - Are there any products on the market, selling in large quantities,
> that incorporate Speex?
Yes. Speex is shipped in large companies by companies like Google
(Google Talk), RedHat/Novel (and most other Linux companies), and many
game companies (e.g. UT2004). I've even hear MS's Halo 2 is using Speex.
There's many more I know about and probably even more I don't know
about.

Hope this helps,

	Jean-Marc