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Actually, GIF was patented for a very, very long time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format#Unisys_and_LZW_patent_enforcement http://en.wik

Actually, GIF was patented for a very, very long time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format#Unisys_and_LZW_patent_enforcement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format#Uni... LZW patents only expired in 2003. Before that, GIF was not only patented, but the patents were actively (and often obnoxiously) enforced by Unisys. The situation was similar to that of MP3 with Frauenhofer in the late 1990s.

yosh 17y ago
LZW encoding was patented, decoding was never patent encumbered. So web browsers never had to worry, since all they were doing was decompressing. For the H.264 case, decoding is also encumbered, so it's not the same situation.