Wasn't it Le Forgeron who wrote:
>Hash: SHA1
>
>Mike Williams wrote:
>> Inspired by the "math related image" thread.
>> 
>> Sphere-6-5: Most vertices have 6 edges, but the red ones have 5. I think
>> this is a standard Geodesic Dome.
>
>If you are, at any times, on USA-administered territory, you are in
>trouble. There is a patent on it! (just ask the golf-ball makers about
>it...)

I thought US patents only lasted 20 years. The geodesic dome itself was
patented 51 years ago by Buckmister Fuller, so it might be out of patent
by now. I guess that the geodesic geometry patented in 1974 by Shoji
Sadao is not quite the same thing (otherwise it wouldn't have been an
original invention) but that might be out of patent too.

A method for laying out a 60-face geodesic pattern of dimples on a golf
ball was patented in 1996 by Robert Thurman, but since my image has more
than 90 faces (I think I have 768), and I'm not making golf balls, I'd
probably be OK. His patent also included balls with more dimples, but
that was achieved by having more than one dimple per face.

-- 
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

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