Post Archive
› June 20, 2003
GIF Patent Expired
Brad Choate points out that today the technology patent for GIF images (No. 4,558,302) expires. Perhaps this means that more companies that make software will be inclined to include GIF output options, or perhaps not.
Perhaps you are a communist PNG user who itches all over with excitement when someone says "alpha channels", and protests at the still significant browser percentage which can not view PNGs.
Perhaps the you really don't care since you ignore the issue for the most part and use Adobe Photoshop produced GIF images willy nilly.
I think I fall closer to the latter, but somewhere in-between those two extremes, depending on the day.
In a cranky and almost unrelated note, I'd like to take the opportunity to express my displeasure with people who pronounce GIF as if it were a popular brand of peanut butter. The acronym is "Graphic Interchange Format" not "Jraphic Interchange Format".
Comments
1. June 20, 2003 11:46 AM
2. June 20, 2003 11:56 AM
Dave S. Posted…
Kuro5hin has a great eulogy with more than you ever wanted to know about GIF. (It may be 'jif', but I refuse to use anything but a hard G myself.)3. June 20, 2003 05:04 PM
Darrel Posted…
I dislike the peanut butter pronounciation as much as I hate those that say ASP like the snake. Don't know why that is, that's just how I am. ;o)4. June 23, 2003 08:48 AM
Scott M. Posted…
Yeah I CANNOT STAND "jif." Drives me crazy. And just because the inventors pronounced it one way, doesn't mean it's "correct." Language lives, develops, and mutates every day. As more young people (people who never had a compuserve number 15 years ago) see GIF as the acronym that it is, "jif" will die. I hope. Darrel: I've never heard ASP like the snake. Didn't O'Reilly put a snake on one of their ASP books? That probably didn't help. But thanks for the warning -- I'll now be ready to pounce on some unsuspecting developer with some witty snake jokes.5. June 23, 2003 08:16 PM
vis10n Posted…
Does anyone know whether there's any movement afoot to extend (post-mortem) the patent? Also, regarding the pronunciation... just because the inventors said "JIF" doesn't mean I have to sound like an idiot. It's GIF, as in "Graphic". Besides... their patent ran out: they're out of the loop.6. June 23, 2003 08:47 PM
Dave S. Posted…
If you could renew and expired patent, then I'd imagine you could re-copyright the works of Shakespeare. GIF, or the license anyway, is toast, thank goodness. Ignore the urge to pun toast/Jif7. June 24, 2003 12:14 PM
vis10n Posted…
Dave, that's a pretty broad brush you're painting with. The question I asked was informed by own patent-getting antics for a number of the businesses I've founded... a process rife with extensions, reviews, and the like. Perhaps I should have asked whether the patent holder, or any other vested interest, had applied for a review of their case... which might have rendered the expiration date a little less final. I'm not a lawyer, just a guy who's dealt with patents... so for all I know there isn't a review process that could out-live the expiry, but that would surprise me as the rest of the patent experience is so riddled with them.8. June 24, 2003 01:51 PM
Dave S. Posted…
I don't have to get more specific though: public domain is public domain, whether it be art or patents in question. The GIF format is now in the public domain in the United States. That's it. It's over. Unisys has no rights on any new use of the format. They are fully within their rights to sue for infringement prior to 6/20/03, but anything after that is fair game. A quick Google search will show you that expired patents become property of the public domain, and once that happens no further rights are possessed to the former patent-holder. There is no process to reverse this once it happens. They could have extended prior to expiration, but not now.9. October 20, 2003 02:38 PM
Victor Posted…
Most people rely on youngpup's sleight to have IE show alpha-blended CSS. Since no one seem's to be taking notice, I'd like to point you to an even simpler method involving no scripts and no fuss whatsoever, just a little CSS parsing bug.
See the URL on the comment header for the technique.
10. April 16, 2004 12:17 AM
grist Posted…
Please put your comments in paragraph tags, no auto-line-breaking anymore.
i bet you people all pronounce 'wrath' incorrectly too.11. July 8, 2004 02:47 AM
Pedro Gimeno Posted…
The patent has now expired all over the world. LZW is officially dead.
12. September 16, 2004 06:51 PM
fu Posted…
your all a bunch of nerds13. October 3, 2004 09:52 PM
Posted…
Please put your comments in paragraph tags, no auto-line-breaking anymore.
Can an expired patent be renewed?
Justin Blanton Posted…
Not for nothing, but I'm afraid it is "jif." I've been down this road many times before and so I'll link you to an explanation (though something tells me you might already know this and just prefer to pronounce it with a hard 'g'). The GIF Pronunciation Page