Comments for 4,558,302

Comment from Mark on 2003-06-20

2003-06-20T18:37:54Z

Actually, you might be talking about Mozilla soon too.

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195280

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Comment from Joel Spolsky on 2003-06-20

2003-06-21T01:21:36Z

Yeah, it doesn't help, unless for some strange reason your software is only sold in the United States. Unisys has made it clear they're not letting people write GIFs without a license until ALL the patents expire, unless you can somehow prove to them that your software will never be exported.]]>

Comment from Jeff on 2003-06-30

2003-06-30T21:53:34Z

For the American software developers, it seems to me that if Unisys wants to enforce, for example, a German patent on an American citizen, they would have to file a lawsuit in a German court. A US court isn't going to take a case about a German patent. And I'd be curious if Germany would even allow an American company to sue an American citizen in their courts. I'd also be curious if the countries where the patents are still valid have even had any software patent infringement suits. If not, I think Unisys would be taking a risk by suing in court in the event they lose and set a precident. That would, for all practical purposes, void their patent in that country. Interesting...]]>

Comment from Jeremy Wood on 2003-07-31

2003-07-31T21:33:46Z

As a developer I've received a lot of emails from enthusiastic users pointing out that the GIF patent is expired.

To add to what Joel said:
A lot of software out there today is distributed online. The internet is international, so I really am breaking international patent laws by posting gif software online.

Regarding Jeff's comment:
I agree it *should* be OK. But a lawsuit with UNISYS -- even if I'm in the right -- is not something I'm willing to risk. We've waited, what, 8 years for the American patent to expire. One more year and all the international ones will have, too.

UNISYS's official (but "subject to changed") statement is here:
http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw.html

I've written a condensed history here:
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~jeremy-wood/software/gifs.html

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GIF Freedom

2003-06-20T18:05:50Z

“So long and good riddance. United States Patent No. 4,558,302 expires today. Better known as the LZW patent. This is...

PNGed off with PNG text

2003-06-21T02:45:17Z

Lots of people have been heralding the expiration of Unisys's GIF patent today (OK, well, actually yesterday in my time zone). Of course, everyone is also mentioning how great a format PNG is (which, indeed, it is). When I...

Goodbye GIF

2003-06-22T20:56:13Z

The GIF patent expires today. Some people feel this will be the end of the PNG format, but PNG is still superior to the GIF format. So perhaps, technology will get the better of economics. But until IE supports the...

Shifting ownerships

2003-06-23T16:20:53Z

Two posts today about property: Philip Greenspun: "Look around you at stuff that you believe to be public property. Very likely it will soon be given away to America's largest corporations and consequently their stock will go up even if...

GIF vs JIF

2003-06-26T01:29:10Z

I'm so glad I came across this tonight. For all of my friends that turn all psycho whenever I pronounce

Free GIFs, Skippy!

2003-08-07T20:23:03Z

Unisys' patent for the GIF format (or, rather, the underlying LZW compression technology that is part of it) expired back...