On Fri, 26 Apr 2002, Leonard Rosenthol wrote:
> At 2:55 PM +0100 4/26/02, Tomas Frydrych wrote:
> > > Where does Apple hold these patents?
> >From the docs that accompany the latest stable release, I
> >understand USA and Japan, but that might not be accurate -- the
> >FreeType document is not certain about this and it is dated 1999.
>
> Here is a VERY recent message from David Turner (FreeType
> lead) about the TrueType patents and Apple...
>
Is this real?? How could anybody possibly get a patent on a 2D dot
product!!! That's over 200 year old maths! Someone should get Bill Gates
to sue apple and get the patent overturned. I mean really!
>
> At 2:15 PM +0200 4/15/02, David Turner wrote:
> >Tony Mobily a �crit :
> >>
> >> Hi David,
> >>
> > > did you check when the patents:
> >>
> >> Patent #1 : US5155805: Method and apparatus for moving control points in
> >> displaying digital typeface on raster output devices
> >>
> >> Filed on May, 8 1989
> >>
> >> Patent #2 : US5159668: Method and apparatus for manipulating outlines in
> >> improving digital typeface on raster output devices
> >>
> >> Filed on May, 8 1989 too. Actually, the two patents were filed and granted
> >> concurrently.
> >>
> >> Patent #3 : US5325479: Method and apparatus for moving control points in
> >> displaying digital typeface on raster output devices
> >>
> >> Filed on May 28, 1992
> >>
> >> ...will expire?
> >> It's going to be 10 years soon, and...
> >>
> >
> >Add 20 years to the filing date. This means that patents #1 and #2 will
> >expire on May, 8, 2009 (in about 7 years from today)
> >
> >I ahve finely analyzed the patent and I'd like to remark the following:
> >
> > Patent #1 protects the _exact_ computation performed by a MIRP instruction.
> > (basically a dot-product in 2D space, yekk..)
> >
> > Patent #3 protects _approximations_ of this computation, since these might
> > generate an outline that is slightly different, but still produce correct
> > bitmaps !! FreeType doesn't infringe on it, by the way..
> >
> >Seems Apple really wanted to "lock" the use of TrueType :-)
> >
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >- David Turner
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Leonard Rosenthol <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> <http://www.lazerware.com>
>
