[MPEG-OTSPEC] MATH Encumbrance

[Dave Crossland]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 8:32 PM Behdad Esfahbod <behdad at behdad.org> wrote:

> 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.
>

Those were held by Apple, as I recall



>
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 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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>>
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>>
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