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The Last MPEG-4 Visual Patent Has Expired

▲ 225 points 77 comments by LorenDB 1mo ago HN discussion ↗

Pangram verdict · v3.3

We believe that this document is fully human-written

0 %

AI likelihood · overall

Human
100% human-written 0% AI-generated
SEGMENTS · HUMAN 1 of 1
SEGMENTS · AI 0 of 1
WORD COUNT 94
PEAK AI % 0% · §1
Analyzed
Jul 19
backend: pangram/v3.3
Segments scanned
1 windows
avg 94 words each
Distribution
100 / 0%
human / AI fraction
Verdict
Human
Pangram v3.3

Article text · 94 words · 1 segments analyzed

Human AI-generated
§1 Human · 0%

If you are looking for a reason to celebrate today, the last of the MPEG-4 Part 2 patents expired today.

While the US and EU patents around MPEG-4 Part 2 expired in recent years, until today there remained one patent still active in Brazil. This final patent was BRPI0109962B1 - "process for storing and processing image information from successive images over time".

The VIA Licensing Alliance confirmed that this was the final MPEG-4 Visual patent and indeed expiring today, 19 July 2026.

Great to see this day finally realized given the prevalence of MPEG-4.