Dolby Says Its China Business Continues To Be Challenged by Licensees' Failure To Report Shipments

Dolby made “notable progress” in China, India and Southeast Asia in fiscal 2015, the company said in its annual 10-K report, but it faces “significant challenges” in China enforcing its contractual and intellectual property rights. Licensees’ failure to report product shipments incorporating Dolby technologies “may adversely impact future revenues,” it said. Revenue from the PC market continued to be about 17 percent of Dolby licensing revenue, with Dolby technology most recently supported in the Microsoft Edge browser, the company said. Dolby Atmos is incorporated in nearly 30 models of launched or announced speakers, plus AV receivers and soundbars, the company said, and Comcast plans to support Atmos in its X1 platform next year. In Dolby’s mobile business, its technologies are in 12 handsets and tablets from Amazon, Lenovo, HTC, LG, Microsoft and ZTE, while Dolby Atmos has been adopted in a dozen handsets and tablets from Lenovo and Amazon, it said. Dolby Vision has been announced for TVs from Skyworth, TCL and Vizio, and Dolby Vision mastered titles are available from Warner via Vudu. Dolby believes additional Dolby Vision titles from other content providers will “soon be available through Netflix,” it said. In fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, Samsung represented roughly 12 percent, 11 percent and 12 percent of Dolby’s total revenue, primarily from Dolby’s mobile and broadcast markets. Dolby’s 2015 licensing revenue was led by its broadcast business (set-top boxes) at 44 percent, followed by PC (Apple and Windows operating systems) with 17 percent, CE (optical disc players, AV receivers, digital media adapters) at 14 percent, mobile (smartphones and tablets) at 13 percent and "other" at 12 percent, it said. As of Sept. 25, Dolby had about 5,100 issued patents and about 3,200 pending patent applications in more than 70 jurisdictions throughout the world, it said. Dolby’s patents expire at various times through April 2040.