On October 1, KAIST announced that Professor Munchurl Kim from the KAIST Department of Electrical Engineering registered an internationally recognized standard patent on highly efficient video compression technology, in next generation high efficiency video coding (HEVC). This compression technology standard makes KAIST the first university in the nation to register such a standard patent.

The patented HEVC standard, called H.265, is an international technology standard designed to efficiently compress very large amounts of visual data for Ultra High Definition (UHD) television screens. The new standard registered by Professor Kim is able to compress data twice as efficiently as the conventional full-HD compression technology named H.264/AVC. The video data can be reduced to half its original size while maintaining the same image quality.

HEVC technology is yet in its infancy. With its advent in UHD TVs and in smartphones, the market is expected to grow 200 billion US dollar per year until 2016; KAIST is expected to receive 10 billion Korean Won in patent royalty.

In 2007, after Professor Kim had decided his collaborative research with KBS met the HEVC standard, he contacted the KAIST Office of University-Industry Cooperation for patent analysis to establish a patenting strategy. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) confirmed the HEVC standard in January, 2013. Also, the global patent license pool management firm MPEG LA confirmed the patent on September 29.

Professor Joongmyeon Bae, dean of the Office of University-Industry Cooperation (OUIC) of KAIST, stated, "This world-class technology is a large international standardization patent that is able to have a huge impact on the international market. We may be able to expect huge amounts of revenue from the patent, an sum unprecendented in a university.” He also revealed, “Through strategic patent management, we hope to acquire over 50 more domestic and international patent standards within the next two years.”

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