The Last MPEG-4 Visual Patent Has Expired

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.