Data-Compression.org

data compression link collection

Patents/Licenses

Information on patents or licenses for various compression techniques.


License Information on GIF and Other LZW-based Technologies

A Unisys press release explaining their beliefs regarding licensing required to use GIF technology in your products. As of this posting (8/2003) the US patents appear to have expired, but there are European and Japanese patents will not expire until some time in 2004.

http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw/

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Posted in August 24th, 2003

LZW Patent Expiration

Drew Scott Daniels was attempting to find out when
all the LZW patents all over the world were
going to expire. This is not as easy as you might think!
Drew was kind enough to forward links to the message
boards where the question was posted. To follow the thread,
go to the bottom of the page and click on the Next
by thread
link.

http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/debian-legal-200303/msg00526.html

         

Posted in April 26th, 2003

Redistributing Windows Media 9 Series Components

The rules from Microsoft on what you can and can’t distribute from Windows Media 9.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwmt/html/RedisWMedC.asp

         

Posted in April 23rd, 2003

Forgent Network Inc. claims IP-rights for JPEG

Published in Patents/Licenses, JPEG

A position paper from Dr. Klaus Jung and Prof. RuediSeiler, representing Algo Vision LuraTech GmbH. They show in some detail that Forgent’s claims on a patent that covers JPEG are not valid.

Reader John F. said: Goodbye Forgent and your lawyer pals at Jenkens and Gilchrist! We’ll see who has the last laugh on this deal, in the early part of 2003 this story has been very quiet.

http://www.algovision-luratech.com/company/news/statement_seiler_jung_en.pdf

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Posted in September 15th, 2002

Patent Claim Strikes an Electronics Nerve

Published in Patents/Licenses, JPEG

The New York Times covers the Forgent JPEG case. A good overview of the case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/29/technology/29JPEG.html

         

Posted in August 8th, 2002

Forgent’s Press Release on JPEG Patent

Forgent explains their position with respect to the infamous ‘672 patent.

http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=FORG&script=410&layout=-6&item_id=3
14044

         

Posted in August 8th, 2002

Finding patent truth in JPEG claim

Published in Patents/Licenses, JPEG

An article on CNET regarding the Forgent JPEG patent. This article brings up the allegation that one of the patent authors sat on a JPEG committee.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-945686.html

         

Posted in August 8th, 2002

No more JPEGs - ISO to withdraw image standard

Published in Patents/Licenses, JPEG

The Register UK reports that the ISO may withdraw the JPEG image format standard if the Forgent ‘672 patent holds up.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/26339.html

         

Posted in August 8th, 2002

Update: Forgent Claims Rights To JPEG Patent

Published in Patents/Licenses, JPEG

ExtremeTech reports on the Forgent JPEG patent case.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,389261,00.asp

         

Posted in August 8th, 2002

JPEG Patent Claim Sparks Concern

Published in Patents/Licenses, JPEG

Wired reports on the Forgent JPEG patent case.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,53981,00.html

         

Posted in August 8th, 2002

JPEG group seeks prior art

Published in Patents/Licenses, JPEG

The ISO committee responsible for the JPEG standard would like to track down prior art that might invalidate the Forgent patent.

http://www.jpeg.org/newsrel1.html

         

Posted in August 8th, 2002

Relational Differentiation Encoding Patent App from Zeosync

The folks at Zeosync have been making some pretty bold claims regarding their yet-to-be-shown compressin tools. This patent application might open the door a bit.

http://l2.espacenet.com/dips/viewer?PN=WO0219536&CY=ep&LG=en&DB=EPD

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Posted in April 7th, 2002

US Patent 4941193: Methods and apparatus for image compression by iterated function system

One of the earliest patents regarding fractal compression. Issued 10 July 1990, assigned to Iterated Systems.

         

Posted in December 24th, 2001

US Patent 5065447: Method and apparatus for processing digital data

A fundamental patent for fractal image compression assigned to Iterated Systems. This patent was issued 12 November 1991.

         

Posted in December 24th, 2001

US Patent 5347600: Method and apparatus for compression and decompression of digital image data

A fractal compression patent held by Iterated Systems, Inc. This appears to be a very fundamental patent issued 13 September 1994.

         

Posted in December 24th, 2001

US5422734: Method for arithmetically encoding half-tone image in image processing system

An arithmetic coding patent which appears to be currently assigned to Samsung.

         

Posted in December 24th, 2001

MP3 Patent

This is reportedly the Fraunhofer patent covering the MP3 compression algorithm.

http://www.mp3-tech.org/docs/5579430.pdf

         

Posted in June 10th, 2001

Compression Patents Sorted By Coverage

Ross Williams has provided a list of compression patents here. Might help, although the site is a few years old and doesn’t appear to have been updated recently.

http://www.ross.net/compression/patents_by_coverage.html

         

Posted in November 22nd, 2000

Unisys LZW Page

Some information on LZW, it looks as though this has info on Licensing, but I’m not sure. All information is in Japanese.

http://www.unisys.co.jp/LZW/

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Posted in November 9th, 1999

What about patents on Data Compression algorithms?

The comp.compression FAQ attempts to shed some light on this topic.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/compression-faq/part1/section-7.html

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Posted in November 4th, 1999