AV2 Codec Finalized with 30% Efficiency Gain, Patent Suit Clouds Royalty-Free Status

The finalization of AV2 specifications signals a critical advancement for streaming services seeking to lower delivery costs and enhance video quality, especially for high-resolution content. However, the ongoing patent litigation against AV1 casts a shadow over the promise of royalty-free open standards from AOMedia, creating licensing uncertainty for implementers across the ecosystem. The industry will be watching how this lawsuit progresses, as its outcome could dictate the adoption trajectory for AV2 and future open codecs, potentially establishing a precedent for patent liability in streaming technology.

The patent dispute concerning AV1's royalty-free status intensified with Dolby Video Compression LLC's lawsuit against Snap Inc. in March 2026 (Access Advance, March 2026). The suit, filed in the U.S. and Brazil, alleges infringement of four patents related to video compression, impacting both HEVC and AV1 implementations in Snapchat. This marks the first AV1 patent lawsuit by an Access Advance licensor against a streaming platform and questions whether AOMedia and its members control all patents used within AV1 (Ars Technica, March 2026). Dolby claims it made no FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) commitments regarding AV1, contrasting it with HEVC patents where such pledges often exist (ip fray, March 2026). The lawsuit asserts that AV1 reuses technologies patented by Dolby, some of which are foundational to HEVC, and that Snap Inc. has used these technologies without licensing (Ars Technica, March 2026). The legal proceedings will test the assertion that a codec can be truly 'royalty-free' if third-party patent holders, who were not involved in its development, have not waived their rights. Analysts, including Florian Mueller, highlight that the growth of streaming has led patent holders to increasingly pursue licensing fees from services, a shift from previous focus on hardware and software (Ars Technica, March 2026). The outcome of these cases could significantly influence the adoption and licensing landscape for AV2 and other open video codecs.