There is no universal price for an image-format licence. Whether a business needs one—and what it would pay—depends on the codec and patents involved, what the product does, who implements it, where it is sold, and the scope of the licence. A licence may charge per unit, as a percentage of a product’s or component’s value, or as a fixed lump sum. The UK Intellectual Property Office says royalty calculations are case-specific: “There is no single methodology that fits all licensing situations.”
That is a question about patent rights in an implementation, not necessarily a fee every person owes when opening or saving an image. A file-format name alone does not establish that a particular user or product needs a licence.
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What does an image-format licence cost?
For a particular implementation, the cost is whatever the applicable rights holder or licensing programme charges under its terms. There is no single market-wide rate for formats such as HEIC, WebP, AVIF or JPEG XL, and the format name alone cannot tell you whether a licence is required.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThe UK Intellectual Property Office identifies three broad payment structures for patent licences: a per-unit royalty, a percentage of the sales value of a product or component (an ad valorem rate), or a fixed lump sum. The agreement may define the relevant unit or value differently, so a rate cannot safely be applied to all sales without checking its scope.
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Why the format name is not enough
Separate the container, codec and patent rights
A container can hold image data encoded in different ways. HEIF is a container format; HEVC is a codec that may be used with it. Patent obligations depend on the particular technology and implementation, not just the label on a file. Before estimating exposure, identify the codec and profiles the product actually encodes or decodes.
Identify the activity and the licensee
Encoding, decoding, distributing encoded content, and implementing the technology in software or hardware may raise different questions. Licensing can occur at the component or end-product level. A component supplier, device maker, software vendor, platform or publisher should not assume that another party’s licence automatically covers its own products or activities; the contract determines who and what it covers.
For an individual who simply views or shares an image, this evidence does not establish a universal per-image fee. The licensing question addressed here is principally whether a product or service implementing patented technology needs a licence, and on what terms.
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| Example | Published cost or route | Scope and limitation |
|---|---|---|
| HEIF/HEIC and HEVC | Not stated as a current general rate (Library of Congress profile). | The Library of Congress describes a complex HEVC patent-pool landscape and discusses adoption concerns around HEIF. Its summary of a 2019 industry analysis is not a current quote or an official rate determination, and it does not establish that every HEIF/HEIC user needs a licence. |
| JPEG XS | Not stated on the JPEG XS Patent Pool overview page (Vectis IP). | The pool offers a licensing route for JPEG XS standard-essential patents. Its stated application areas include professional cameras, medical imaging, surveillance, broadcast and AV-over-IP. The existence of the pool does not provide a price. |
| JPEG XL | Described as royalty-free by MDN; no royalty rate is stated. | MDN says contributors committed to a royalty-free release during standardization and that no royalty-bearing patents are known. This is MDN’s characterization, not a guarantee that every implementation is clear of all possible third-party claims. |
| Avanci Video streaming programme | 1.6%–2.0% of qualifying revenue or $0.12–$0.15 per user per month, according to Avanci’s programme page accessed October 7, 2026. | This is an adjacent video-streaming example, not a still-image-format rate. It covers a specified programme for AV1, H.265/HEVC, H.266/VVC, MPEG-DASH and VP9; the applicable rate depends on how many standards are included. Its fixed monthly royalty is listed as “To be announced.” |
The Avanci Video page also describes a promotional adjustment that required signature by July 5, 2026, or within six months of first commercial implementation. The fixed deadline had passed as of October 7, 2026; verify current programme terms before relying on any figure. None of these examples sets a general price for image-format licensing.
Why patent pools do not necessarily settle the total cost
A patent pool can offer one route to rights contributed by participating patent holders. Its coverage still has boundaries: some relevant rights may sit outside the pool, and different pools may overlap. The pool’s rate should not be treated as the total cost of every patent potentially relevant to a product unless the licence and other rights have been checked.
The Library of Congress describes multiple pools in the HEVC landscape. That helps explain why a single quoted pool rate may not answer a business’s full licensing question, but it does not prove that a particular product infringes or that every company must take a particular licence.
How to build a realistic licence estimate
- Record the technology. Identify the exact format, codec, profiles and implementation, including whether the product encodes, decodes or distributes encoded material.
- Define the parties and products. Establish whether the potential licensee is a component supplier, device maker, software vendor, platform, publisher or service, and precisely which components, products or services the licence would cover.
- Set the commercial boundaries. List the sales units or revenue base, product classes, territories, markets and licence term. Ask how the agreement treats exceptions, minimums, caps and reporting periods.
- Check the royalty basis. Request the unit definition or value calculation, applicable rate, reporting and payment terms, and any discounts or conditions. Do not multiply a per-unit figure by all sales until the agreement’s definitions and exclusions are clear.
- Map pool coverage and overlap. Ask which patents and territories are included, which licensees qualify, what is excluded, whether relevant rights holders remain outside the pool, and how overlapping rights are treated.
- Request the basis for the terms. Ask for the patent and claims basis, portfolio scope, rate calculation and, where relevant, the proposed FRAND terms. The UK Intellectual Property Office notes that royalty analysis can depend on comparable licences, market conditions, the technology, standard maturity, and patent value and age.
Use written, current terms for budgeting. A public rate may be tied to a specific licensee category, product, territory, period or programme; it is not automatically applicable to a different business model.
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What a price estimate cannot decide
A published rate or pool description does not determine whether a specific product infringes a patent, whether a particular company needs a licence, whether a pool’s patents are essential or valid, or what royalty would be FRAND for a particular implementation. Those questions require product-specific technical and legal analysis. For an actual implementation, document the codec and profile, product and position in the value chain, intended activities and territories, then obtain current written terms from relevant rights holders or qualified counsel.
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