Re: [Devel] AntiAliasing Patents

[Rogier van Dalen]

> > Am I correct in assuming that other than the 3 Apple patents noted on
> > your patent information page, a search of patents turned up no other
[...]
> Also, Microsoft surely does hold patents on font-related things (I have
seen
> at least 3 of them, apart from ClearType), and I have no way to say if
> "potentially" Freetype infringe them. I have also repeatly ask if
Microsoft
> or Adobe did have "in the filer" patents about OpenType, which may present
> dangers about writing OpenType software, and did not get any answer at
all.

FWIW, This is what Thomas Phinney of Adobe said about this on the OpenType
list on 14 October 2002:

"Other than TrueType hinting, the only OT-related patents I know of are:

- an Adobe patent on the OT feature language used in our FDK. However,
since we license the FDK at no charge, and we have licensed the source code
at no cost to several developers, this should not be an issue.

- an Adobe patent pending on the glyph synthesis mechanism used in our FDK.
    NOTE: We are working with our legal folks to expand the license to make
it clear that we will not claim any intellectual property rights on
synthetic glyphs added to third party fonts. However, we wish to be sure
that we don't lose any rights to synthetic glyphs added to our own fonts!

I don't see that these should create any problems for third party
developers."

I can't find a reaction from Microsoft on that topic on the OpenType list.

rogier