> [Original Message] > From: Michael Everson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > In the NEW YORK TIMES today > comes a report of a USA patent for a new version of written Arabic > letters, designed to make them easier to read/write/typeset without > making them too different from traditional Arabic script: > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/15/technology/15patent.html - > > The piece includes a photo of the new style.
For those who are interested, a text-only version of the patents are available at the US Patent Office website [1]. The relevant patent numbers are 6,701,446 and D435,584. I'm not a lawyer, but a quick perusal makes me think that there is nothing that will affect Unicode per se. Font designers will have to not produce a font that embodies Mr. Abulhab's principles without his permission. Since his font departs radically from Arabic convention, I don't think that except for the possibility that this patent might be used a precedent for something really important that a patent might mess up that there is much to worry about here. Oh and by the way, the timing is probably due to the patent having been just issued on the 9th. [1] http://www.uspto.gov/
