Lossless Data Compression,Recommended Standard, Issue 2, MAy 2012, CCSDS,
121.0-B-2
License Considerations, Section A3, page 37
With respect to this issue we got the following information from the
aforementioned NASA contact:
From: Geurts, Bryan A. (GSFC-1401) Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 12:14 PM To:
Yeh, Pen-Shu (GSFC-5670) Subject: RE: Need help from you again
Pen-Shu,
The license agreement with ICs, LLC, for Patent Numbers US 5,448,642, US
5,687,255 and US 5,822,457, has been terminated effective March 31,
NASA has no other licensee of these patents. It is NASA's intent to not pay the
remaining maintenance fees owing on these patents, thereby allowing them to
eventually become abandoned, and to not enforce the patents. If you have any
questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Bryan A. Geurts Chief Patent Counsel NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Code
140.1, 8800 Greenbelt Road Greenbelt, MD 20771 Phone: (301) 286-7352 Fax: (301)
286-9502
Reassuring this information in August 2012 because of the license considerations
in the above referenced CCSDS standard:
From: Geurts, Bryan A. (GSFC-1401) Sent: Friday, August 31, 2012 10:36 AM To:
Luis Kornblueh Subject: RE: Patent 5448642
Dear Mr. Kornblueh
Per my email cited above, NASA has no interest in licensing or maintaining US
Patent No. 5448642 and therefore has no objection to your use of its teachings
and claims. However, while NASA has effectively abandoned this patent, any use
of the subject matter is at your own risk and NASA cannot warrant that its use
will satisfy your particular needs or that your use will not infringe on
another's intellectual property rights.
The cited CCSDS standard does not refer to any other intellectual property
rights.