DAB+ patent information

DAB

The European patents related to the DAB family of standards expired on 18th January 2013 and DAB is now a free-to-integrate technology.

DAB+

A licence fee is applicable for the AAC audio decoder used in DAB+, payable to Via Licensing: https://www.via-corp.com/licensing/aac/

The DAB+ royalty that is specifically for HE-AACv2 (paid to VIA Licensing) needs to be paid once per product (i.e. per product unit sold).

If a manufacturer has an internet radio product which has HE-AAC to handle IP streams and DAB+, the royalty is paid only once.

The applicability of the essential HE AAC v2 patents in the AAC pool depends on the country of manufacture and the country of sale and the dates of expiry also vary from country to country; since many products are made in China the effective expiry date is in 2036.