‍

Context: Various Access Advance licensors have been enforcing their High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, H.265) patents against Roku lately, some even since 2024. In some jurisdictions, things took a little longer than in others. In a groundbreaking development, Dolby secured Western Europe’s first-ever standard-essential patent (SEP) preliminary injunction (PI) in Munich (November 20, 2025 ip fray article).

What’s new: Access Advance confirms that Roku has joined both the Video Distribution Pool (VDP), which covers Roku’s streaming services, and the HEVC Advance pool, which covers devices. This is an update. We previously concluded an agreement on HEVC from court filings.

Direct impact: Roku is not just another HEVC licensee, but also the first U.S.-based VDP licensee. The VDP pool was formed only about about a year ago, and more companies joined later in the year (July 31, 2025 ip fray article).

Wider ramifications: Just couple of weeks ago, Hisense appeared on Access Advance’s list of HEVC licensees (December 20, 2025 ip fray article). Earlier that week, Access Advance announced the acquisition of Via’s HEVC and VVC pools (December 15, 2025 ip fray article).

‍

Access Advance CEO Peter Moller said:

“We’re pleased to welcome Roku as the first US-based Video Distribution Patent Pool Licensee and as a new HEVC Advance Licensee. Licensing negotiations don’t always follow a straight line, and this one certainly didn’t. But what matters is reaching an outcome that works. Roku now has significant coverage for its use of HEVC technology for both its devices and streaming, and our Licensors are being fairly compensated for their innovations that power modern video streaming.”

Most of the time, post-settlement statements make it sound as if the parties had never engaged in litigation against each other. The above statement is diplomatic and constructive, but doesn’t deny that there were unnecessary frictional losses.

‍

How we originally inferred the existence of a pool license

Prior to official confirmation by Advance, this is what the original version of this article said:

• In a Brazilian court filing first obtained by Michael Ma, Dolby and Roku asked a Rio de Janeiro court to stay their case for 45 days as a settlement has been reached, but the details of the various withdrawals are still being worked out.
• In multiple Unified Patent Court (UPC) cases against Roku that were brought by Dolby, Sun Patent Trust and Huawei, a flurry of “applications” were filed by the patent holders (and to some extent by Roku in response) on the same day (January 6, 2026) or the day before.
• In the combination of all of this, it is apparent that Roku has taken a pool license, even though we cannot see Roku listed among HEVC Advance’s licensees (for now). It would be out of character for Dolby to settle on a bilateral basis in an HEVC context, and the near-simultaneous filings in multiple UPC cases, all of which have nothing in common but the availability of the patents-in-suit through the HEVC Advance pool, leaves no other plausible explanation.

Here’s a screenshot of the Brazilian docket with the latest entry being the motion to stay the proceedings:

Here’s a sample screenshot from a Sun Patent Trust v. Roku UPC case, showing filings on January 5 and 6, and that pattern is found on multiple other dockets of HEVC cases against Roku: