- From: Jason Antony <s1118355@student.gu.edu.au>
- Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 20:44:33 +1000
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
One of the obstacles preventing a royalty-free SVG [Scalable Vector Graphics] recommendation is a patent that Apple holds. This was uncovered by Daniel Phillips, who said: > http://www.delphion.com/details?&pn=US05379129__ > US5379129: Method for compositing a source and destination image using a > mask image Jan. 3, 1995 <snip /> > This method can be described in boolean > expression according to the formula: > result=((1-mask)*source)+(mask*destination). > > So this is an example of the worst kind of patent: a patent on a > mathematical expression. Furthermore, a particularly obvious one that many, including > myself, have been using for years prior to the date of Apple's patent. Lee Barstow provided this insight: > Oh, my. They claim they've patented the bitmask?!?!?!?!?! Bitmasks were > being used back in the early 1980's in commercial games. This patent wasn't > requested until 1992. APPLE THEMSELVES WERE USING THIS IN 1984! More reinforcement from Jeremy Sanders: > Apple's patents is one of the worst I have seen. It is a patent for a > completely trivial mathematical operation. How many computer game authors > in the 1980s would have used this operation? Masked bitmaps are not > exactly novel. From all this, we can conclude that patent #US5379129 is prior art. Now, how does one go about invalidating this annoyance? Cheers Jason Antony
Received on Thursday, 4 October 2001 06:44:58 UTC