[Savannah-help-public] [sr #105278] Is Unisys GIF patent expired?

[Michael J. Flickinger]

Update of sr #105278 (project administration):

                  Status:                    None => Done                   
             Assigned to:                    None => mjflick                
             Open/Closed:                    Open => Closed                 

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Follow-up Comment #1:

I'd recommend a quick readover of your quote:

> The U.S. IBM patent expires 11 August 2006, (we are still searching the
databases of other countries).

>From the philosophy page:
> Even if Unisys really did give permission for free software to 
> generate GIFs, we would still have to deal with the IBM patent. 
> Both the IBM and the Unisys patents cover the same
> "invention"--the LZW compression algorithm. (This could reflect 
> an error on the part of the US Patent and Trademark Office, which
> is famous for incompetence and poor judgment.)

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