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I think you do not need one anymore. The patent were filled in 1997, that's now 20 years ago.

See: https://madfileformatscience.garymcgath.com/2016/0/05/mp3pat...

The last two patents seem to be related to an encode optimization and are not needed to write a decoder.

Which means it is possible now to include an MP3 decoder in GNU/Linux distros, etc. without paying the $2,500 fee.

I think 5,703,999 is about shifting between using joint and separated stereo for frames depending on the amount of difference between the channels to avoid cross-channel interference, this sounds like it might still be important for lower bitrate mp3s.

I don't think I know the technical details well enough to comment on 5,924,060, but I'll note that it has a priority date of 1986 and publication date of 1999... good riddance to submarine patents.

In any case, it is 17 years after publication or 20 years after filing (before 1995), meaning that both are expired.

So the Tunequest[0] article referenced got it wrong on the last two? I have a hard time figuring out what applies and does not apply to patents filed between 1995 and 1999

[0]: http://www.tunequest.org/a-big-list-of-mp3-patents/20070226/

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