 | | | Metaballs - regarding patent. | Metaballs - regarding patent. 2005-04-15 - By Pingo
Back
who would wanna wake up in a monkey anyway...
On Apr 15, 2005, at 14:25, Adrian Wyer wrote:
> actually, Kim DOES hold the patent for crossing the road.....
> i think Ben holds the one for waking up in the monkey
>
>
> this thread is SO discussion list bound
>
> adrian wyer
> head of 3d
> milltv
> adrian@(protected)
> www.the-mill.com
> t: +44 (0)20 7287 4041
> f: +44 (0)20 7915 0551
>
> -- -- Original Message -- -- From: "John Norman"
> <john.norman@(protected)>
> To: <XSI@(protected)>
> Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 12:59 PM
> Subject: RE: Metaballs - regarding patent.
>
>
>>>> Kim Aldis wrote:
>>>> " It's like holding a patent on crossing the road or waking up in
>>>> the morning. "
>>
>> Hey Kim, you made my day!
>> You put it so well, LOL.
>>
>> John Norman
>>
>>
>> -- --Original Message-- --
>> From: owner-xsi@(protected) [mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)]On
>> Behalf
>> Of kim aldis
>> Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 6:59 PM
>> 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.....
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> No virus found in this outgoing message.
>>> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
>>> Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.10 - Release Date: 4/14/2005
>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo@(protected) with the following
>>> text in body:
>>> unsubscribe xsi
>>>
>>> --
>>> No virus found in this incoming message.
>>> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
>>> Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.9 - Release Date: 13/04/2005
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> No virus found in this outgoing message.
>>> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
>>> Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.11 - Release Date:
>>> 14/04/2005
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo@(protected) with the following
>>> text in body:
>>> unsubscribe xsi
>>>
>>>
>>
>> ---
>> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo@(protected) with the following text in
>> body:
>> unsubscribe xsi
>> ---
>> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo@(protected) with the following text in
>> body:
>> unsubscribe xsi
>
>
> ---
> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo@(protected) with the following text in
> body:
> unsubscribe xsi
>
---
Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo@(protected) with the following text in body:
unsubscribe xsi
|
|
|