Via Licensing Alliance calls on DRAM SEP owners to contribute to new memory technology patent pool

Context:

Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) technology’s fundamental value has significantly increased in recent years, as the rapid scaling and adoption of AI technologies continue to drive exponential growth in compute demand. The market is currently valued at $121.78 billion and is expected to double by 2035. DRAM serves as working memory that enables processors to operate efficiently and now forms the backbone of modern data processing, which allows AI applications to develop and grow.

During its annual Bridge Summit in September, Via Licensing Alliance announced plans to launch several patent licensing programs that focus on semiconductor technologies (September 25, 2025 ip fray article). In an exclusive interview with ip fray last month, Via President Heath Hoglund revealed they are already setting pacing guidelines on where the program should be in the future, noting that the space has “a lot of opportunity for innovation and technology” and contains a “very clearly-defined body of relevant IP” (October 9, 2025 ip fray article).

What’s new: Via today announced a formal call for patents for its first semiconductor patent pool, which will address licensing for DRAM, including several key categories of DRAM technology covered by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) standard:

Double Data Rate (DDR3 and later)
Low Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR4 and later)
Graphics Double Data Rate (GDDR5 and later)
High Bandwidth Memory (HBM)

Direct impact: To be part of the pool formation process, companies with relevant DRAM SEPs are invited to submit them, along with an applicable claim chart to the JEDEC standards identified above. Pool formation meetings will tentatively begin in early 2026. Via has requested that any claim charts or questions be sent directly to Via at ProgramManagement@via-la.com.

Wider ramifications: Historically, DRAM licensing has occurred at the manufacturing level. But Via’s new memory pool aims to extend licensing to the data center level to better capture the growing importance and value of DRAM in powering AI workloads, the administrator said today.

In a statement today, Via’s head of programs Willy Chang said the importance of DRAM to today’s AI technologies has “fundamentally changed” the value of patents in this space. He added:

“We look forward to working with our licensors to unlock the value that patented memory technologies bring to today’s computing needs—most specifically, answering the massive demand for memory at the data center level generated by the continued growth of AI.”

In the interview with ip fray last month, Mr. Hoglund noted that there are a number of companies that manufacture memory and many that use that memory. For that kind of market to function, he said, you must have a well-defined standard for how the memory communicates with other devices – and that has to be very clearly standardized.

Mr. Hoglund also emphasized that Via wanted to go somewhere others hadn’t been before, and with a number of experts in semiconductors already working for the pool administrator, the idea for such programs came up organically.