I thought to get a patent you were supposed to invent something new and not obvious.
Other than the shape of the letters (which are apparently derivative) what is novel about a script which doesn't have complex shaping behaviour (whether for writing Arabic or any other language) ? I can understand someone claiming copyright for the design or shape of letters if they are unique - but nothing else in this seems like an "invention". It is little different from representing Arabic letters by their Unicode code alues - or any other unique symbol for each letter. - Chris -- CJ Fynn ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ernest Cline" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > [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/
