It could still be useful if the patents were part of a defence patent portfolio. (Ideally I'd abolish software patents altogether, or set a hard 10 year limit on them together with some kind of mechanism to curb the impact of add-on and submarine patents.)
Re:H.266/Versatile Video Coding (VVC)
by tankenmate on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @07:09PM
(#23765274)
Yes, it can be used defensively. If you breach the GPLv3 then in effect you also lose your patent license. The GPLv3 also forbids you making an opposing patent claim, so in effect it is defensive.
So yes you are correct, but in effect it might as well be patent free as far as a 3rd party end user is concerned as they have been provided what is in effect a safe harbour.