One nice thing about patents - they eventually expire. Take a look at many of the Softimage patents and you'll notice they're dated in the 1990's. With patents being issued for 20 year protection (in the US), many of those patents will be expiring soon.
Matt -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stefan Kubicek Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 2:47 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Friday Flashback #133 Thx Alan, I knew about the render region, and I'm not surprised of the toon and quick stretch ones either. What I really wonder is: how could any developer these days write commercial software and hope not to infringe any patents by accident? It's a total minefield, let alone financially prohibitive due to cost of patent research. Heck, I hear even the progress bar is, or was until recently, patented! It's coming to a point where it's getting impossible for small companies and individuals to develop anything commercially. And that's not a problem in a land far far away. It already affects my daily work, as illustrated by the lack of decent hair modeling solutions for Soft other than that Shave version from stone age. Peregin's Yeti cannot be sold in America due to legal dispute with Joe Alter, and I believe that other "hair mesh modeling" tech is also Patented by Cem Yuksel (Hair Farm), and I doubt he has plans to port it to Softimage himself. Patents are to protect those who take risks and invest in research and development, I understand that, but I feel it's getting to a point where it does more harm than good. They simply remain effective for too long, anything longer than 5 years is a lifetime in software development. All one can do is either not write software or just don't give a fuck, close his eyes and push forward in hope that nobody sues his ass off. Did I miss anything? > Softimage has a bunch of patents actually. > > > > Render region: > http://www.google.com/patents > ?id=1k8EAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=avid%20technology%20render&pg=PA12#v=onepag > e&q&f=false > > XSI's QuickStretch deformer: > http://www.google.com/patents > ?id=NxcgAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=softimage&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false > > There's a few more, including one for toon shading: > https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=pts&hl=en&q=inassignee:%22Soft > image%22 > > > Oh, and Avid appears to have a patent on editing f-curves in 2D space: > https://www.google.com/patents/WO2000063847A1?cl=en&dq=avid+softimage&; > hl=en&sa=X&ei=a4cTUrOxC46g4AP7p4HYCA&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA > > > > On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 5:28 AM, Stefan Kubicek <[email protected]>wrote: > >> (http://patent.ipexl.com/**inventor/Michael_C_Sheasby_1.**html<http:/ >> /patent.ipexl.com/inventor/Michael_C_Sheasby_1.html> >>> ) >>> >> >> What? The XSI Property Editor is actually patented? >> >> >> On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 12:21 PM, Christoph Muetze >> <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> ...He didn't just do the skin but also the functional design of the >>>> user interface, right? I was always under the impression that he >>>> was the designer behind the UI. Am i wrong about this? >>>> >>>> I always have a hard time explaining people that i do interface >>>> design - and that sometimes includes (but is entirely not about) >>>> button painting ;) I couldn't care less about the (admittedly >>>> beautiful) skin of Softimage - but the UI... oh boy, that's (for >>>> the largest part) a piece of true art. >>>> >>> >>> No, he only did the look and skin of the UI. In an interview on >>> xsibase, it was implied he did "ui design" but this is wrong, it was >>> only graphic design. >>> >>> For the functional design, we had at many people in the early days >>> who designed that. >>> >>> They were called Program Managers, which is how that job was called >>> at Microsoft in the 1990s, but in this decade we'd call them >>> interaction designers. For example, one person from Softimage|DS >>> called Michael Sheasby >>> (http://patent.ipexl.com/**inventor/Michael_C_Sheasby_1.**html<http: >>> //patent.ipexl.com/inventor/Michael_C_Sheasby_1.html>) >>> is >>> responsible for all the "modeless inspector" design, i.e. everything >>> about how the PPGs work, without which XSI wouldn't feel like XSI. >>> There were different people for each areas. >>> >>> >> >> -- >> ------------------------------**--------------- >> Stefan Kubicek [email protected] >> ------------------------------**--------------- >> keyvis digital imagery >> Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3 >> A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien >> Phone: +43 (0) 699 12614231 >> www.keyvis.at >> -- This email and its attachments are -- >> -- confidential and for the recipient only -- >> >> > -- --------------------------------------------- Stefan Kubicek [email protected] --------------------------------------------- keyvis digital imagery Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3 A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien Phone: +43 (0) 699 12614231 www.keyvis.at -- This email and its attachments are -- -- confidential and for the recipient only --
