[vtk-developers] vtkPowerCrustSurfaceReconstruction

[Ken Martin]

> "Under the transitional provisions, the term of a certain group of
> patents will extend for the longer of two alternative calculations:
> 17 years from the date the patent issued, or 20 years from
> the filing
> date of the first U.S. patent application upon which the issuing
> patent is based.  This provision applies to all patent applications
> now pending, to all patent applications filed between now
> and June 7,
> 1995, and to all issued patents that are in force on June 8, 1995. "

Even more interesting. The end result being that it is even further
off and perhaps we should clean this stuff out earlier rather than
later. I discussed similar concerns with Will regarding putting
patented code into ITK. It just doesn't make sense for an open source
community to put time and effort into maintaining patented code.  This
will be a bigger factor with ITK as it is slightly more prone to
change than VTK right now.

Ken