Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion
MP3 Patents and Rockbox
Febs:
It looks like there is at least one registered patent for Vorbis:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=vorbis&OS=vorbis&RS=vorbis
Edit: nevermind, I'm very wrong. They simply refer to Vorbis in the description of the patent as an example of audio compression.
JonathanHull:
--- Quote from: Febs on February 27, 2007, 01:40:17 PM ---Edit: nevermind, I'm very wrong. They simply refer to Vorbis in the description of the patent as an example of audio compression.
--- End quote ---
I was gonna say... if Vorbis is referred to in the patent wouldn't it be prior art anyway. :P
Llorean:
I believe Vorbis itself is patent free. What this does NOT mean though is that some aspect of it could not be claimed to infringe on an existing patent for another technology.
Some aspect of its compression method, for example, could be shown to infringe on an existing patent, at which point someone would have to spend a rather tidy sum to defend it even if the claim were baseless.
daniel54:
--- Quote from: Llorean on February 27, 2007, 01:53:03 PM ---I believe Vorbis itself is patent free. What this does NOT mean though is that some aspect of it could not be claimed to infringe on an existing patent for another technology.
Some aspect of its compression method, for example, could be shown to infringe on an existing patent, at which point someone would have to spend a rather tidy sum to defend it even if the claim were baseless.
--- End quote ---
Thank you! That explains it! 8-) That makes alot of sense, someone probably will then! :(
bascule:
--- Quote from: Danny on February 27, 2007, 01:25:50 PM ---From: http://www.vorbis.com/
--- Quote ---Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
As Llorean said, you are absolutely correct. The problem is, given sufficient incentive (i.e., money or market share), there's plenty of companies would argue that vorbis infringes 'their' patents purely by the fact that it works in a similar way, uses similar technology and algorithms and ends up with a similar product. And of course, lawyers are masters at stringing out a case until the little guy runs out of money or just caves in...
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