[vtkusers] SIFT legal issues (PATENTS)

[Daniel James White]

On Dec 9, 2009, at 6:00 PM, vtkusers-request at vtk.org wrote:

>
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:54:32 -0500
> From: David Doria <daviddoria+vtk at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [vtkusers] SIFT legal issues (PATENTS)
> Cc: vtkusers at vtk.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<c19fcadc0912090854x4902aee8v6f2a3a055870f2f7 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 7:03 PM, Luis Ibanez  
> <luis.ibanez at kitware.com> wrote:
>> David,
>>
>>
>> A U.S. Patent grants a 20-years long Monopoly
>> on the following rights for an invention:
>>
>> ? ? ?* Use
>> ? ? ?* Make
>> ? ? ?* Sell
>> ? ? ?* Offer for sale
>> ? ? ?* Import


snip

>>
>> I would leave you with this quote:
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> ? ?Governor Thomas was so pleased with the
>> ? ?construction of this stove...
>> ? ?that he offered to give me a patent for the
>> ? ?sole vending of them for a term of years;
>> ? ?but I declined it from a principle which has
>> ? ?ever weighted with me on such occasions,
>>
>> ? ?viz.:
>> ? ?That as we enjoy great advantages from the
>> ? ? inventions of others, we should be glad of
>> ? ? an opportunity to serve others by any
>> ? ? invention of ours; and this we should do
>> ? ? freely and generously.?
>>
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Benjamin Franklin
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>> ? ?Regards,
>>
>>
>> ? ? ? ? ?Luis
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 4:16 PM, Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com 
>> > wrote:
>>> David,
>>>
>>> I think you can certainly publish. You have to be careful about how
>>> you use it. Just because you are at a University does not give you
>>> rights to use it as far as I know.
>>>
>>> Perhaps Luis will comment. Although he is not a lawyer, he knows  
>>> much
>>> more about this than I.
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 3:59 PM, David Doria <daviddoria+vtk at gmail.com 
>>> > wrote:
>>>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com 
>>>> > wrote:
>>>>> David,
>>>>>
>>>>> According to wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale-invariant_feature_transform
>>>>>
>>>>> ?"The algorithm is patented in the US; the owner is the  
>>>>> University of
>>>>> British Columbia.".
>>>>>
>>>>> ?If this is true then we cannot include it in VTK or ITK.
>>>>>
>>>>> And you should be careful how you use it in your own work. You  
>>>>> may be
>>>>> violating the patent.
>>>>>
>>>>> Bill
>>>>
>>>> I thought that was the case about I/VTK.
>>>>
>>>> However, what about the VJ?
>>>>
>>>> I suppose I need a crash course in patent law, but am I really not
>>>> allowed to even use it in my own work? Surely people have published
>>>> papers saying "we then use SIFT to blah blah", right?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> David
>
> Luis,
>
> As usual, an impressive, informative, and comprehensive response,  
> thanks!
>
> Am I correct in the summary that "Yes, you can submit code of patented
> algorithms to the VTK Journal. It does not become illegal until the
> code is compiled."?
>
> So when people say "we used SIFT..." in a journal paper, they are
> using the executable provided by Lowe. If they had compiled their own
> implementation, they would be breaking the law. Correct?
>
> Is it fair to say that these types of algorithms are still nice to
> have in ITK/VTK format for those users who wish to use it for
> "amusement only"?
>
> Thanks,
>
> David


My colleagues here at the "Fiji is just imageJ" project have a SIFT  
implementation as a plugin already....
as its aimed at academic use with few people interested in driving  
commercial products from imageJ... seems we are not in patent danger...

There is also another option:
see
  SURF plugin: http://labun.com/imagej-surf/

SURF is very similar to SIFT, as it also tries to derive scale-invariant
features from unprocessed image data, yet it is not patented.

In some experiments, we saw that results of SIFT and SURF
are subtly different, though.

maybe  VTK can implement SURF, but not SIFT
(or for that matter, MOPS, which appears to be patented, too).


Dan




Dr. Daniel James White BSc. (Hons.) PhD
Senior Microscopist / Image Visualisation, Processing and Analysis
Light Microscopy and Image Processing Facilities
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Pfotenhauerstrasse 108
01307 DRESDEN
Germany

+49 (0)15114966933 (German Mobile)
+49 (0)351 210 2627 (Work phone at MPI-CBG)
+49 (0)351 210 1078 (Fax MPI-CBG LMF)

http://www.bioimagexd.net 	BioImageXD
http://pacific.mpi-cbg.de		Fiji -  is just ImageJ (Batteries Included)
http://www.chalkie.org.uk		Dan's Homepages
https://ifn.mpi-cbg.de 			Dresden Imaging Facility Network
dan (at) chalkie.org.uk
( white (at) mpi-cbg.de )