More and more people are becoming aware that the reading and/or writing of GIF images requires a license to use Unisys patented Lempel Ziv Welch (LZW) data compression and decompression technology, including United States Patent No. 4,558,302, Japanese Patent Numbers 2,123,602 and 2,610,084, and patents in Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Since January of 1995, Unisys has entered into almost three thousand license agreements for use of GIF and other LZW-based technology.
The U.S. LZW patent expires June 20, 2003, the counterpart Canadian patent expires July 7, 2004, the counterpart patents in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy expire June 18, 2004, and the Japanese counterpart patents expire June 20, 2004.
After expiration of the U.S. LZW patent on June 20, 2003, liability for patent infringement will occur only if an infringing act with respect to a product or service (e.g., developing, selling, offering to sell, making, using, distributing, downloading, exporting and/or importing) occurs in a country where the LZW patent has not expired.
Since each country has its own patent laws and rules regarding what constitutes patent infringement, effected persons may wish to seek advice from their own legal counsel.
Microsoft Corporation obtained a license under the above Unisys LZW patents in September, 1996. Microsoft's license does NOT extend to software developers or third parties who use Microsoft toolkit, language, development or operating system products to provide GIF read/write and/or any other LZW capabilities in their own products (e.g., by way of DLLs and APIs). The complete statement by Microsoft can be found at Microsoft's developer-oriented Web site. Software developers and third parties who wish to include Microsoft toolkit, language, development or operating system products in their own products for providing GIF or any other LZW capability should contact Unisys for a license as instructed below. Other forms of LZW are, for example, TIFF-LZW, PDF and Postscript-2.
Unisys therefore cautions recipients, users and distributors of hardware or software products containing LZW conversion capability to make sure that they are lawfully acquiring and/or distributing licensed LZW software. The fact that a product includes a notice regarding the need for a Unisys license (or a statement that the software is "freeware") should NOT be relied on to avoid liability, since the distributor may not in fact be authorized to distribute the LZW software and may itself also be subject to liability along with the recipient. You should also be aware that Unisys licenses have a limited field of use and may not allow your intended use even if the vendor/distributor has a Unisys license. For example, the typical Unisys license for standalone software does NOT permit copying, modification, resale, use on a server or in a network, or use for Internet/Intranet/Extranet or Web site operation. Other limitations may also be applicable. Upon request, Unisys will, in most instances, be able to advise you whether a specific software vendor is licensed by Unisys and the scope of this license.
Currently applicable information as to Unisys licensing policies for products using LZW (GIF, TIFF-LZW, PostScript, Portable Document Format (PDF), V.42bis, etc.) can be obtained by contacting the following:
Unisys Corporation
Welch Patent Licensing Department
Mail Stop E8-114
Unisys Way
Blue Bell, PA 19424
Via the Internet, send email to LZW_INFO@UNISYS.COM.
Via facsimile, send inquiries to Welch Patent Licensing Department at
215-986-3090.
A special license (read in English or Japanese) is available for operators of Intranet and Billboard Web sites.
The above is presented for information purposes only, and is subject to change by Unisys. Additionally, this information should not be considered as legally obligating Unisys in any way with regard to license availability, or as to the terms and conditions offered for a license, or with regard to the interpretation of any license agreements. You should consult with your own legal counsel regarding your particular situation.