U.S. Patent No. 9,253,428 covers the ATSC 3.0 bootstrap, the signal every ATSC 3.0 receiver must detect and decode before it can find and demodulate anything else in the broadcast. Cerinet has committed to ATSC to license the patent on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms.
Cerinet offers one published receiver rate. It is the same for every receiver maker or seller and for every kind of receiver device. There are no volume discounts and no individually negotiated reductions.
Applies to units sold on or after January 1, 2027, and to any party that does not use the early-resolution rate.
Applies to past units and to units sold through December 31, 2026, for any party that signs the license and completes the closing payment before January 1, 2027. Units sold from January 1, 2027 are at the standard rate.
Both rates are available to every company on the same terms, including companies that are in litigation with Cerinet.
Makers and sellers of any apparatus that tunes and demodulates an ATSC 3.0 broadcast signal for the United States, including televisions, set-top boxes and converters, gateways, tuners and dongles, automotive and mobile receivers, and professional monitoring and reception equipment.
The license is taken by the maker or seller of the receiver product. It is not a stand-alone chip license. Equipment that processes only a transport stream, baseband or intermediate-frequency signal, without tuning an over-the-air broadcast, is not charged.
| Unit of charge | One charge per receiver unit, regardless of how many tuners or demodulators it contains. The rate does not vary with price, screen size, form factor, channel, market or revenue. |
|---|---|
| No double charge | No royalty is due for a unit already licensed under the ’428 patent, or for which the patent rights are already exhausted. |
| Customers | Once a unit’s royalty is paid, its later use, resale and transfer are covered at no additional fee. |
| Reporting | Semiannual, certified unit counts by product family. No prices, customer lists or routine serial-number lists are required. |
| Records and audit | Records kept for five years. Cerinet may verify reports through an independent auditor, generally no more than once a year. |
| Cash only | No grant-back of the licensee’s own patents and no exclusivity warranty. |
| Right to challenge | The license does not require the licensee to give up the right to challenge the patent’s validity, essentiality or scope. |
| Past units | Resolved in a written historical schedule, using certified unit counts. Past units qualify for the $0.50 rate only through an early-resolution closing completed before January 1, 2027. |
| Scope | Receiver products. The receiver license does not include rights to transmit an ATSC 3.0 broadcast; broadcast transmission is licensed separately. |
Licenses for ATSC 3.0 broadcast facilities and transmission equipment are offered separately. For information, contact fdufresne@cerinet.com.
U.S. Patent No. 9,253,428 is the subject of pending U.S. litigation. Litigation does not close the licensing route or change the published terms.
