In article <3c5859f0@news.povray.org>, "Jan Walzer" <jan### [at] lzernet> 
wrote:

> probably not very long anymore ... if the "right" people read this, 
> they will in the former countries, where it is possible to patent 
> these kind of things, patent it ...

I think if there is evidence an algorithm has already existed, it can no 
longer be patented. The requirements are that it is not a trivial or 
obvious solution and that it is original...but I'm not an expert.
I don't know how they got the marching cubes patent, it seems like a 
very trivial and obvious solution to me. Probably got people who didn't 
know any better to approve it. But we don't have to worry about the 
marching triangles algorithm getting patented, it is too widely known 
and used.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <chr### [at] maccom>
POV-Ray TAG e-mail: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
TAG web site: http://tag.povray.org/

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