Path: gmdzi!ira.uka.de!yale.edu!think.com!wupost!psuvax1!uxa.ecn.bgu.edu!mflll From: bcsaic!de...@cs.washington.edu (Alan Deehr) Newsgroups: comp.patents Subject: Permission to use compress Keywords: compress LZ Message-ID: <62764@bcsaic.UUCP> Date: 20 Dec 91 19:05:02 GMT Sender: mf...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Dr. Laurence Leff) Organization: Boeing Computer Services ATC, Seattle Lines: 46 Approved: pate...@cs.su.oz.au Status: R Temporary-Moderator: mfl...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu Can anyone provide any concrete information on the legal aspects of using the public domain versions of the source code for compress? Here is our situation: we copied "compress" (James Wood/UCB version) from comp.sources and ported it to run on MVS. We would like to use the converted code internally within Boeing, and are happy to replicate the copyright notice required by UCB in our code. Thanks to the helpful note by Jean-loup Gailly, we are aware of the following patents covering LZ type compression algorithms or associated implemented techniques: 4,464,650 Lempel, et al (assigned to UNISYS) 4,558,302 Lempel, et al (assigned to UNISYS) 4,814,746 IBM 4,876,541 Storer 5,049,881 Gibson & Graybill 5,051,745 Katz pending Fiala & Greene pending Jung Questions: 1. Does anyone know for sure which, if any, of these patents are infringed by "compress"? 2. Has UCB been granted a license by the relevant holders which would make this code legally usable by someone who picks it up from the net? 3. Have the relevant patent holders issued licenses to anyone else for software implementations of the protected algorithms? 4. Does anyone know specific contact names and addresses of the relevant patent holders? 5. Any other information that you think helpful would be appreciated. Thank you, Kurt McMillen k...@sdc.boeing.com 206-865-5514
Path: gmdzi!ieee.org!dorm.rutgers.edu!rutgers!psuvax1!uxa.ecn.bgu.edu!mflll From: brns...@KRAMDEN.ACF.NYU.EDU (Dan Bernstein) Newsgroups: comp.patents Subject: Re: Permission to use compress Message-ID: <9112222104.AA08200@KRAMDEN.ACF.NYU.EDU> Date: 22 Dec 91 21:04:11 GMT Sender: mf...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Dr. Laurence Leff) Organization: IR Lines: 38 Approved: pate...@cs.su.oz.au Status: R Temporary-Moderator: mfl...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu Alan Deehr writes: > Can anyone provide any concrete information on the legal aspects > of using the public domain versions of the source code for > compress? Sure. There are no copyright problems with compress. However, patents 4,558,302 and 4,814,746 appear to cover LZW (aka MW1) coding, which compress uses. Since 4,558,302 (Unisys) was filed after 4,814,746 (IBM), it stands almost no chance of holding up in court. However, according to a statement apparently from a PKware employee, Unisys has been quietly extorting (uh, I mean, asking) license fees for 4,558,302. IBM can also decide to get into the act any time it wants. It is my understanding that 4,464,650 has not been claimed to cover compress. It is also defeated by prior art published in 1978. The other patents you mention were filed too late to affect compress. > 2. Has UCB been granted a license by the relevant holders which > would make this code legally usable by someone who picks it up > from the net? Such a thing would not be possible. You and UCB do not enter into a contract when you pick up the compress code, so any rights UCB has been granted don't apply to you. (They haven't been granted any rights here anyway.) You and ``the relevant holders'' obviously haven't entered into a contract. Unless the patent holders have waived their rights---and they haven't---you don't get a free ride. > 5. Any other information that you think helpful would be appreciated. Mental process patents, such as the compression patents you mentioned, are on very shaky legal ground. It's obvious that they're a problem--- patent examiners appear entirely incompetent to detect that two mental processes are in fact the same. You should probably ask the Leage for Programming Freedom, lea...@prep.ai.mit.edu, for information on software patents. ---Dan