The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) came to the conclusion that RED’s REDCODE is eligible patent belonged to RED and denied Apple’s petition. What does it mean? Only good things! Read our insights down below.

Petitioner has not shown a reasonable likelihood that it would prevail in showing that any challenged claim is unpatentable.

Apple vs. RED

As you may already know, Apple has filed a petition to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to review and challenge RED’s patent regarding REDCODE.

The intention behind this petition is unclear. Generally speaking, there are two reasons. The first is to examine the possibility of using the REDCODE technology to further developing of Apple’s ProRes RAW. The other purpose is to prepare the right conditions for establishing a partnership between RED and Apple to combine RED’s codec into Apple’s Metal framework.

However, the request has been denied by the patent office as stated: “Petitioner (Apple) has not shown a reasonable likelihood that it would prevail in showing that any challenged claim is unpatentable. Thus, we deny the Petition and do not institute an inter-partes review”.

RED & Apple as a joint venture

According to RED’s president, Jarred Land, this was a part of a standard due diligence process performed by the two companies so they can proceed further with development. As stated by RED: “We are pleased to see our REDCODE patents withstand another challenge. RED integration with Apple’s METAL framework for realtime R3D playback is coming along well, and the work that the two teams are doing together is exceeding expectations. We are very excited about the new Mac Pro and the new XDR pro display and the power they bring to the entire RED workflow. To be clear, as I mentioned before, this never really was Apple vs. RED. It has always been APPLE + RED, and this was all part of the process defining how we work together in the future”.

RED integration with Apple’s METAL framework for realtime R3D playback is coming along well, and the work that the two teams are doing together is exceeding expectations

Jarred Land, RED President

Mac Pro + Metal + R3D + FCPX= Proxy-free editing

It’s well known that Apple and RED teams are working together to allow the privilege of ultra high definition flawless R3D editing capabilities on FCPX. The Mac Pro configuration armed with the mysteries Afterburner will enable them to achieve that. As stated by RED back in June: “Apple’s new hardware will bring a mind‐blowing level of performance to Metal‐accelerated, proxy‐free R3D workflows in Final Cut Pro X that editors truly have never seen before. We are very excited to bring a Metal‐ optimized version of R3D in September”.

It’s important to mention that the new FCPX version (10.4.7) delivers a new Metal-based engine that improves playback and accelerates graphics tasks, including rendering, real-time effects, and exporting on Metal- compatible Mac computers. That will allow improving editing performances regarding native transcoding-free media (8K RAW footage, for instance), especially on the upcoming Mac Pro.

Apple’s new hardware will bring a mind‐blowing level of performance to Metal‐accelerated, proxy‐free R3D workflows in Final Cut Pro X that editors truly have never seen before

Jarred Land, RED President

Summary

All signs indicate about sharpening the REDCODE integration with the Metal framework to boost the editing capabilities of the Mac Pro. There is no doubt that the Mac Pro would be defined as editors’ beast. The question is, at what cost since a high-end machine can reach easily to $20,000 and beyond.