EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 57, Issue 03 This issue's topics: (fwd) Re: Yamahas patent (3 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1993 12:18:00 EDT From: Jeff Harrington Subject: (fwd) Re: Yamahas patent Found this on comp.music -> Bill sez that the patent applies only to software :). Path: dorsai.dorsai.org!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ucbv ax!hplabs!unix.sri.com!headwall.Stanford.EDU!nntp.Stanford.EDU!news From: bil@ccrma.Stanford.EDU (Bill Schottstaedt) Newsgroups: comp.music Subject: Re: Yamahas patent Message-ID: <1993Oct6.140239.17949@leland.Stanford.EDU> Date: 6 Oct 93 14:02:39 GMT References: <28rh3j$1g8h@obelix.uni-muenster.de> Sender: news@leland.Stanford.EDU (Mr News) Reply-To: bil@ccrma.stanford.edu Organization: Stanford University Lines: 22 In article <28rh3j$1g8h@obelix.uni-muenster.de> stiens@math.uni-muenster.de (Christian Stiens) writes: > Does anyone know more about YAMAHA's patent for the FM synthesis? > Is it valid only for real synthis or also for software programs? > Until what date is it valid (I have read 1994). I am not a lawyer, but I have a copy of the Yamaha patent, so perhaps I can add to the confusion. It's US Patent 4249447, "Tone Production Method for an Electronic Musical Instrument". Norio Tomisawa, filed June 27, 1979 with "foreign priority dates" in June 1978, and granted on Feb 10, 1981 (I think -- the thing is hard to parse). If I interpret it correctly, it is claiming a patent on any physical object that embodies one of 5 ways of producing what I would call feedback phase modulation, all 5 ways involving address arithmetic during table lookup of a stored sinusoid. The 6th claim covers doing this many times in parallel for polyphony. My (tentative) interpretation is that it covers objects, not software, and it's obviously easy to do the same thing in other ways. I think patents are good for 17 years, so perhaps the date 1994 is referring to the "prior art" FM patent 4018121? -- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1993 15:29:00 EDT From: John Rossi III Subject: Re: (fwd) Re: Yamahas patent It seems clear to me that what was being patented was a technique of algorithmicFM for use in digital systems. Clearly, there is nothing concerning how FM would be implemented in an analog synth (e.g., Xpander) which would preclude FM synthesis from being used in such analog machines. On the other hand, the K2000 would necessarily have to use dome digital; the K2000 would necessarily have to use some digital algorithm to produce FM. In that case, the Yamaha patent would probably be a problem. John ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 09:32:09 +0100 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: (fwd) Re: Yamahas patent >Found this on comp.music -> Bill sez that the patent applies only to software >:). Presumably this still means that noone else can come out with an FM synth: synthesisers *are* predominantly software these days. Maybe someone can bring out a certifiable (in court) hardware FM synthesiser. I wonder what it will weigh? Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************