Google's patent license for VP8 [was: Google WebM?]

[Matthew Flaschen]

Lawrence Rosen wrote:
> How do you read this limited patent license in combination with a
> generous BSD license? Is this a subtly phrased requirement to conform to
> the VP8 specification or to use only Google's code, or just a drafting
> ambiguity in an open source patent and copyright license? 

Have you seen http://www.webmproject.org/license/bitstream/ ?  I'm not
sure if it was up when this thread started, but it says:

Google hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive,
no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section)
patent license to *make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import,
and otherwise transfer implementations of this specification where such
license applies only to those patent claims, both currently owned by
Google and acquired in the future, licensable by Google that are
necessarily infringed by implementation of this specification*. If You
or your agent or exclusive licensee institute or order or agree to the
institution of patent litigation against any entity (including a
cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that any
implementation of this specification constitutes direct or contributory
patent infringement, or inducement of patent infringement, then any
rights granted to You under the License for this specification shall
terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

So this license (separate from the modified BSD software license at
http://www.webmproject.org/license/software/) applies to any
implementation of the specification.

Matt Flaschen