Hacker News Reader

Comment by TheDong | Hacker News Reader

GIF patents are expired I believe, but I dont' think MP3 is safe until 2018.

This patent, for example, doesn't expire until near the end of 2017: https://www.google.com/patents/US5703999?dq=5,703,999

Edit: This is supported by the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing.2C_ownership_and...

> In the United States, the technology will be substantially patent-free on 31 December 2017 (see below). The majority of MP3 patents expired in the US between 2007 and 2015

View on HN

The expiration date is wrong. Even before 1995, it was 17 years after publication or 20 years after priority date.

Fine, another example: https://www.google.com/patents/US5924060

This one was filed in 97 so +20 is 2017 (because the 20 years is from filing date, yes?)

I think it is priority date, which is often the filing date of the earliest patent in a chain of continuations. For fun trivia, look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_patent

It's from the priority date, which was Aug 29, 1986 making this expired.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_of_patent_in_the_United_S...

From 35 USC 154(a):

    (2)Term.—

    Subject to the payment of fees under this title,
    such grant shall be for a term beginning on the date
    on which the patent issues and ending 20 years from
    the date on which the application for the patent was
    filed in the United States or, if the application
    contains a specific reference to an earlier filed
    application or applications under section 120, 121,
    365(c), or 386(c), from the date on which the
    earliest such application was filed.

    (3)Priority.—

    Priority under section 119, 365(a), 365(b), 386(a),
    or 386(b) shall not be taken into account in
    determining the term of a patent.

For this patent, there is a chain of specific references to earlier filed applications, but I'm not sure which of those, if any, are under section 120, 121, 365(c) or 386(c) and so affect the expiration date of the patent.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com