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DAB+ patent information

DAB on-air standard

The patents related to the core technology used in the DAB family of standards (as defined in ETSI EN 300 401) expired on 18th January 2013 and DAB is now a free-to-integrate technology.

DAB audio coding and decoding

The patents related to DAB audio (as defined in ETSI TS 103 466) have expired and DAB audio is now a free-to-integrate technology.

DAB+ audio coding and decoding

DAB+ audio (as defined in ETSI TS 102 563) uses the HE-AAC v2 variant. The applicability of the essential HE-AAC v2 patents for coding and decoding equipment depends on the country of manufacture and the country of sale of the product, and the dates of expiry for different patents also vary from country to country; this can make it difficult to ascertain the requirements for a product that is expected to be sold in different markets over a particular timeframe.

Via Licensing operate an AAC patent pool which includes other AAC features that may exceed those needed for DAB+ products.  However, the royalty fee applies to the product, so for example a product with both DAB+ and internet streaming only requires one AAC license.  More information may be found on the Via Licensing web page: https://www.via-la.com/licensing-2/aac/.

Some technology suppliers of audio coding and decoding modules provide the required AAC license as part of their offer: in these cases the final product manufacturer may not have a direct relationship with the AAC patent pool.