I think that's more a case of Sisvel trying their luck.

I don't think they'll be successful. The Alliance for Open Media was careful to avoid potential patent problems during AV1 development. So, unless AOMedia seriously failed in that effort, AV1 will be alright.

Being careful and being successful are two different things, especially given how hard it is to do an exhaustive search over patents to ensure that no, no claim in any patent filing touches your code, especially given that there are regimes where patent filings for software get pretty much a rubber stamp and are based around "first to file" even if there's prior art.

I'm confused. How is Sisvel able to sell a license for AV1 patents when they're not a member of AOMedia? Do they actually have AV1 patents, or are they trying to trick companies that would rather pay up than risk violating patents?

Basically, unlike copyright, you don't even have to know that someone else patented something in order to infringe on a patent and have them come out of the woodwork later. It's just even more expensive if you do know.

The patent system was not designed to have every tiny little technique patented, and this is its failure mode.

> It's just even more expensive if you do know.

In the USA. Wilful and unwilful infringement of the patent costs the same in Europe.

Luckily, software patents are unenforceable in the EU, so for many of us on this site that's irrelevant.

That's what patent trolling is