Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!sgi!vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com
From: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: compressing a bit stream
Summary: maybe no patent problem
Keywords: data compression
Message-ID: <66299@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 7 Aug 90 20:05:32 GMT
References: <26B70D8E.23784@ics.uci.edu> <573@westmark.UU.NET> <592@wattres.UUCP> <593@westmark.UU.NET>
Sender: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 28

In article <592@wattres.UUCP>, steve@wattres.UUCP (Steve Watt) writes:
> Watch out if you plan on using this for ANY commercial application...  There
> is a patent (number 4 558 302) held on the LZW algorithm by Unisys, and they
> are starting to realize what they have their hands on...


This has been discussed in gnu.misc recently.  The enclosed two excerpts 
from an article there may be relevant, and for all I know, accurate.

vjs@sgi.com



> From: jaw@riacs.edu (James A. Woods)
> Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
> Subject: Sperry patent #4,558,302 does *not* affect 'compress'
> Keywords: data compression, algorithm, patent
> Message-ID: <1990Jul31.220935.1424@riacs.edu>
> Date: 31 Jul 90 22:09:35 GMT
> Organization: RIACS, NASA Ames Research Center
> Lines: 69
...
>      As a co-author of 'compress' who has had contact with an attorney for
> Unisys (nee Sperry), I would like to relay a very basic admission from Unisys
> that noncommercial use of 'compress' is perfectly legal.  'Compress' is also
> commercially distributed by AT&T as part of Unix System 5 release 4,
> with no further restrictions placed upon the use of the binary, as far
> as I am aware.