Petteri Pyyny
4 Sep 2003 14:48
China's Ministry of Information Industry finalized a deal with DVD technology licensing body 3C Alliance on this week so that Chinese DVD player manufacturers can pay lower royalty fees than previously agreed.
Original deal was signed a year ago when all major Chinese DVD manufacturers agreed to actually pay anything to license holders and the rate was then set to $5 per player. At the time of the deal, the current "reduced payment system" was also introduced, but it took a year of royalty compliance from DVD player manufacturers to get to join to the scheme.
Under the new system, manufacturers pay $3.50 per each sold player, but also pay $0.50 additional fee to compensate the royalties they didn't pay before September 2002. Now manufacturers and Chinese government are negotiating with other DVD technology patent owners, namely with 1C Alliance and 6C Alliance, to get similiar deal done with them as well.
Source: Digitimes.com