The final remaining patent on the MP3 format — "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENCODING DIGITAL SIGNALS EMPLOYING BIT ALLOCATION USING COMBINATIONS OF DIFFERENT THRESHOLD MODELS TO ACHIEVE DESIRED BIT RATES" — has expired today.
There's a common list out there (compiled 10 years ago) that has two dates wrong and will doom me to well-meaning nerds issuing corrections in my mentions today. So be it; I live to serve.
@xor My eyeball is twitching in solidarity.