A news report says the U.S. DOJ has launched an antitrust investigation of MPEG LA. A U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman would not comment Friday on reports that the agency is investigating patent management firm MPEG LA for allegedly trying to suppress an open-source video compression format supported by Google.The Wall Street Journal said Thursday that the DOJ has launched an antitrust investigation of MPEG LA over a long-standing dispute with Google and its rival VP8 video codec. MPEG LA officials have claimed that the VP8 video codec uses patents managed the company. MPEG LA, which manages patents related to the high-definition video encoding standard H.264, announced in February it was looking for patents “essential” to the VP8 video codec. MPEG LA members include Apple and Microsoft. Google acquired VP8 as part of its purchase of On2 Technology in 2009. Google then released VP8 as an open-source standard last May.Early this year, Google announced it was dropping support for H.264 in its Chrome Browser. Representatives of Google and MPEG 4 weren’t immediately available for comment.Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant’s e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com. Related content news UK government plans 2,500 new tech recruits by 2025 with focus on cybersecurity New apprenticeships and talent programmes will support recruitment for in-demand roles such as cybersecurity technologists and software developers By Michael Hill Sep 29, 2023 4 mins Education Industry Education Industry Education Industry news UK data regulator orders end to spreadsheet FOI requests after serious data breaches The Information Commissioner’s Office says alternative approaches should be used to publish freedom of information data to mitigate risks to personal information By Michael Hill Sep 29, 2023 3 mins Government Cybercrime Data and Information Security feature Cybersecurity startups to watch for in 2023 These startups are jumping in where most established security vendors have yet to go. By CSO Staff Sep 29, 2023 19 mins CSO and CISO Security news analysis Companies are already feeling the pressure from upcoming US SEC cyber rules New Securities and Exchange Commission cyber incident reporting rules don't kick in until December, but experts say they highlight the need for greater collaboration between CISOs and the C-suite By Cynthia Brumfield Sep 28, 2023 6 mins Regulation Data Breach Financial Services Industry Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe