I should point out something not immediately obvious about S3TC: It's believed that the patents cover any complete pipeline which decompresses S3TC textures according to the S3TC algorithm. It's stupidly broad that way.
On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 8:12 AM, Alan Coopersmith <alan.coopersm...@oracle.com> wrote: > On 08/09/11 02:29, Rudolf Polzer wrote: >> Is US patent law really that retarded? > > US patent law shares a common feature with most other patent systems: > No matter how carefully you word the patent or read the patent, the > only way to really find out whether something is a patent violation > is to go to court and see if a judge or jury, all made up of non-engineers > who don't understand the details, decide you're guilty of patent infringement. > All attempts to apply carefully reasoned logic to patents fail when they hit > this one illogical and unpredictable step, with potentially expensive results. > > The US patent system has a bonus feature though - if you knew about that > patent > in advance, then they can triple the amount of money you lose in the lawsuit, > which is why most companies advise their engineers to avoid knowing anything > about another companies patents, much less how to engineer around them. > > Sadly, the much needed patent reform doesn't seem to be coming, while the > patent trolls and lawsuits keep rising. > > -- > -Alan Coopersmith- alan.coopersm...@oracle.com > Oracle Solaris Platform Engineering: X Window System > > _______________________________________________ > mesa-dev mailing list > mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org > http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/mesa-dev > -- When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? ~ Keynes Corbin Simpson <mostawesomed...@gmail.com> _______________________________________________ mesa-dev mailing list mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/mesa-dev
