Velos Media is bailing on its HEVC patent pool program, with those patents now returning to their owners. Owner Marconi still claims some 400 assets, but this is down from some 5,700, and the Velos website no longer makes mention of BlackBerry, Ericsson, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, and Sony. This is long overdue, and should significantly reduce the cost of licensing HEVC, as Velos was comically more expensive. However, it is not clear what is going to happen to any existing Velos licensee agreements, and there is likely going to be a chaotic period of legal work in the meantime, as licenses get transferred and forms updated. Velos’ apparent departure still leaves the HEVC codec with two patent pools – the…