CompuServe Messages

I think you're lumping too much under 'file format' If you've developed a superior compression algorithm, that algorithm is clearly protectable, it is new technology. It could be used by several file formats or by hardware or software applications without ever even becoming a file. An analogy may be the Adobe Type 1 PS font format, where Adobe retained secret and proprietary technologies for hinting chars so they look nice at low point sizes. At the same time, un-hinted fonts and type 3 font specs were available and in wide use. The toaster's framestores probably make use of some d2 encoding tricks which NewTek is very protective of, and even if their encoding algorithms are patented, developing another way to generate the data in the appropriate form would create virtually identical files, of the exact framestore format in a way which i think would be very difficult to prosecute. I'd like a distinction between file format, and some underlying technology which made the format necessary or desirable. heck, I could generate framestores just by making files of random bytes and trying to load them. eventually I'd get a framestore, and a while after that I'd get a framestore of the mona lisa redone by andy warhol.