 | | | Metaballs - regarding patent. | Metaballs - regarding patent. 2005-04-15 - By Alastair Hearsum
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Surely any original innovative idea should be patentable whether software
based or not? I'm not defending Quantel by the way.
-- --Original Message-- --
From: kim aldis [mailto:kim@(protected)]
Sent: 15 April 2005 10:59
To: XSI@(protected)
Subject: RE: Metaballs - regarding patent.
Specifically software patents, not patents in general. For a good example,
remember back to Quantel's famous assertion that they had a patent on
something like 'the writing and reading of values to a framebuffer'. They
attempted to sue a couple of companies a few years ago, most notably a
Japanese company, as test cases. Their assertions weren't upheld but because
their patent was found to be invalid, rather than because a court thought it
was dumb that any one company should hold restrictive rights to such a
fundamental action.
Remember, every action you take on a modern computer requires that something
is read or written to a framebuffer, even just moving a mouse. It's like
holding a patent on crossing the road or waking up in the morning.
If that particular patent had been upheld then one of two things would have
happened; Quantel would have asked for money in return for a license or they
would have used it restrictively such that only they could manuacture
anything that used the patented item. The former, you'd be paying more money
for your computer, the latter, you'd be buying kit only from Quantel, which
is kind of scary.
Here's a few views on the subject:-
http://www.base.com/software-patents/examples.html for some interesting
examples
http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/patents.html for a good overview.
> -- --Original Message-- --
> From: owner-xsi@(protected)
> [mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)] On Behalf Of Alastair Hearsum
> Sent: 15 April 2005 10:12
> To: 'XSI@(protected)'
> Subject: RE: Metaballs - regarding patent.
>
> Sorry if this is a heretical question and if I haven't
> thought about this deeply enough but what is wrong with the
> idea of patents?
>
>
> Alastair Hearsum
>
> -- --Original Message-- --
> From: Joe Saltzman [mailto:joe@(protected)]
> Sent: 14 April 2005 20:39
> To: XSI mail list
> Subject: Metaballs - regarding patent.
>
>
>
>
> I just did a simple google search.... this is what I came up with.
>
> Seems like GE may hold the patent -- they might have become
> aggressive in its enforcement -- do you want to take a chance
> on an infringement case with GE? Could you afford to fight
> such a case? I don't think most people could do.
>
> Just another reason why software patents are not a good thing IMHO.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Joe Saltzman
>
>
>
>
>
> Subject 5.11: What is the status of the patent on the "marching cubes"
> algorithm?
>
> United States Patent Number: 4,710,876
> Date of Patent: Dec. 1, 1987
> Inventors: Harvey E. Cline, William E. Lorensen
> Assignee: General Electric Company
> Title: "System and Method for the Display of Surface
> Structures Contained Within the Interior Region of a Solid Body"
> Filed: Jun. 5, 1985
>
> United States Patent Number: 4,885,688
> Date of Patent: Dec. 5, 1989
> Inventor: Carl R. Crawford
> Assignee: General Electric Company
> Title: "Minimization of Directed Points Generated in
> Three-Dimensional Dividing Cubes Method"
> Filed: Nov. 25, 1987
>
>
>
>
> You wrote:
>
> I've heard this before and it seems rather absurd. Metaballs
> were in Soft 3D and Houdini before Rem Inforgaphica patented them.
>
> I have never heard of patents being retroactive.
>
> - -- --Original Message-- --
> From: owner-xsi@(protected) [owner-xsi@(protected)] On
> Behalf Of peterb
> Sent: April 14, 2005 1:16 PM
> To: XSI@(protected)
> Subject: Re: Metaballs....
>
> And it didnt stop any competition for implementing them either...
>
>
> - -- -- Original Message -- --
> From: "Andi Farhall" <andi@(protected)>
> To: <XSI@(protected)>
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 7:04 AM
> Subject: RE: Metaballs....
>
>
> > daft question i know but which algorithm did soft|3d use? There was
> > obviously no patent problem there so how come now.....
>
>
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