kevin@cornell.UUCP (Kevin Karplus) (09/17/85)
Slight correction to message seen in net.music.synth: Yamaha does not hold the FM synthesis patent, John Chowning at Stanford University does. Stanford has sold an exclusive license for the technology to Yamaha. Algorithm patents are hard to defend, but it would be difficult to justify the cost of fighting the patent in court plus the cost of designing a new FM chip, when the chip is available at moderate cost from Yamaha. There are other synthesis techniques developed at Stanford, some of which have not been licensed yet. Probably none of them are as versatile as FM, but a company looking for some proprietary technology for a new music product should contact Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing to find out what's available. Kevin Karplus Disclaimer: I have an interest in Stanford's OTL, since Alex Strong and I developed a synthesis technique that Stanford has not sold all the rights to.