Opus isn’t patent free, and what’s worse it’s not particularly clear who owns what. The biggest patent pool is currently OpusPool but it’s not the only one.
No codec (or any other technical development, really - edit: except for 20+ years old stuff, and only if you don't add any, even "obvious" improvements) is known patent free, or clear on "who owns what."
Folks set up pools all the time, but somehow they never offer indemnification for completeness of the pool - because they can't.
FWIW, submarine patents are long dead, so it is possible to feel assured that old enough stuff is patent free. Of course that denies a lot of important improvements, but due to diminishing returns and the ramp of tech development it's still ever more significant. A lot of key stuff is going to lose monopoly lock this decade.
No one said that Opus is the only one suffering from licensing ambiguity, but comparing it to say AptX and its variants which do have a clear one stop shop for licensing (Qualcomm) it’s a much riskier venture especially when it comes to hardware.
A drive-by patent owner can show up on anything, and if they don't want to license to you, your entire product is bust.
Even if it's AptX and Qualcomm issues you a license in exchange for money. I wouldn't even bet on being able to claw back these license costs after being ordered to destroy your AptX-equipped product after it ran into somebody else's patent.
The risk that this happens is _exactly_ the same for Opus or AptX.
"I represent the holders of the patents in question" is simple enough. I wonder if it's fraud, if all you're putting out is an unverifiable claim on the net. The pool operators do that all the time.
The point isn't to sell a settlement. It's to publish "oh, we're totally serious that there are patents in our control. We won't tell you which ones, we don't tell you what we want from you. If you're interested, reach out to us."
Few people will even bother to try, and if so, you keep them at a distance with some random bullshit (communication can break down _sooo_ easily), but it certainly poisons the well by adding a layer of FUD to the tech you're targeting with your claims.
Standard fare of patent pool operators, and it's high time to reciprocate.
The existence of a patent pool does not mean there are valid patent claims against it. But yes, you may be technically correct by saying "patent free" rather than "not infringing on any valid patents". That said historically Opus has had claims against it by patents that looked valid but upon closer investigation didn't actually cover what the codec does.
Just looks like FUD to me. Meanwhile, the patent pools of competing technologies definitely still don't offer indemnification they cover all patents, but have no problem paying a bunch of people to spew exactly this kind of FUD - they're the ones who tried to set up this "patent pool" to begin with!
https://www.opuspool.com/