[MPEG-OTSPEC] MATH Encumbrance

[Behdad Esfahbod]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 2:11 PM Peter Constable <pgcon6 at msn.com> wrote:

> It seems to me that there’s a good case study in that
> TrueType/TTO/OpenType have been with us for about 30 years and that, AFAIK,
> there have never been any patent suites or demands for licensing royalties
> throughout that time. (Someone correct me if I’m overlooking something.)
>

That's not enough. Fedora continued turning off subpixel-rendering and
bytecode-interpretter in FreeType as long as the relevant MS patents were
not expired.



>
>
>
>
> Peter
>
>
>
> *From:* mpeg-otspec <mpeg-otspec-bounces at lists.aau.at> * On Behalf Of *John
> Hudson
> *Sent:* Sunday, August 23, 2020 11:16 AM
> *To:* mpeg-otspec at lists.aau.at
> *Subject:* Re: [MPEG-OTSPEC] MATH Encumbrance
>
>
>
> Dave wrote, in response to Peter:
>
> I will say that I was a party in some patents in my time at MS that were
> filed solely for defensive purposes, never with any intent to charge
> licensing fees.
>
> Right, and my name is on some Google patents for font UI stuff, which I am
> fine with for the same reasons.
>
>
>
> But isn't the point of a formal standards body to get that intent turned
> into something in writing? And is that what OFF means? Or isn't it?
>
> Indeed, from my perspective, having a clear patent policy is the primary
> (sole?) virtue of the ISO standardisation of OFF.
>
> The MS math layout patents are yet another case of lack of explicit
> statement creating potential uncertainty. We can accept the likelihood that
> the patents were registered for defensive purposes, and that Microsoft
> would not seek licensing fees or restrict use based on those or other
> patents related to fonts, but likelihood and goodwill are not certainty.
>
> Dave is right that inclusion in OFF should be a good case study of patents
> in the format.
>
> JH
>
> --
>
>
>
> John Hudson
>
> Tiro Typeworks Ltd    www.tiro.com <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiro.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca8424765d4e147d5757708d847908cfb%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637338033446186844&sdata=B65cPCYiCw9kaAeQ5EKCwmH9kPX9zPgQVV%2BXihlRCjo%3D&reserved=0>
>
> Salish Sea, BC        tiro at tiro.com
>
>
>
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