Patent demands may spur Unisys rivals in graphics market Patents6/5/2000; 7:16:35 AM April 19, 2000: More Patent Madness: "Unisys is expanding its efforts to license the technology behind the Web's most popular graphics format, as it continues talks with major Internet portals to pay for the right to use so-called GIF files."In particular, one of the companies Unisys is chasing down is Accuweather, a weather forcasting service. As a result, Accuweather has committed to changing over to the graphic format known as PNG, for "Portable Network Graphic", which is a free and open alternative. An interesting point made on Slashdot, proving once again that it is occasionally good for something:

It just dawned on me. Unisys and AccuWeather are competing providers of weather data, such as value added weather radar feeds. So my suspicion is that this may be more than just trying to get huge royalties. It may also be to try and cripple a competitor. I didn't see any mention of this in the CNET article, but I think it's important enough to bring up. It may even be relevant and further show why so many patents are really bad tools to put in the hands of business. It could help explain why they wanted so much from AccuWeather.

Bad patent abuser! From the CNet article, "According to one person familiar with the companies' deal, Unisys had requested as much as $3.8 million under one licensing scenario that Accuweather rejected."