Kevin Mack, the new president of Via Licensing Alliance, joins Eli for the Clause 8 season finale.

Kevin talks about Via's plans to build its next patent pools around "de facto" standards — technology the market adopted on its own, with no standards body behind it — which would push collaborative licensing into territory it has never touched. Mack also takes a hard look at the royalty-free models spreading through tech and AI, from AV1 to the new Shared AI License Foundation (SAIL), argues that "free" rarely stays free, and explains why he's optimistic about where the patent system is heading.

Kevin and Eli also discuss:

*Via's model and the "tipping point" that turns a pool from a few licensors into thousands of licensees

*"De facto" standards: pooling patents for technology no standards body ever blessed

*Leadership turnover at Via, the HEVC pool's move to Access Advance, and a new strategy-and-growth group

*The push into semiconductors, including a new DRAM memory program

*AV1, SAIL, and why Mack thinks royalty-free rarely stays free

*Whether AI patents are as "foundational" as advertised — and why "AI is not new"

*Efficient infringement, patents as property rights, and why companies ultimately take a license

*The mood out of Via's Rome summit and a US patent system tilting back toward owners

Notable names, companies & standards

People: Kevin Mack (president, Via Licensing Alliance); Heath Hoglund (former Via president); John Amster (Jamster Capital; RPX co-founder)

Organizations: Via Licensing Alliance (Via LA), MPEG LA, Dolby, Access Advance, Alliance for Open Media, Shared AI License Foundation (SAIL), WIPO (PatentScope), DOJ, USPTO

SAIL founders / board (public): Anthropic, Genentech, IBM, Meta, Microsoft; board observers eBay and TD Bank Group; members include Block and Figma

Standards & technologies: AAC, AVC (H.264), HEVC (H.265), AV1, MPEG-2, Qi wireless charging, DRAM memory, SEP / FRAND

Disclaimer

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