Patenting data formats

Patents on data formats come in two varieties:

• Patents on the arrangement of data
• Patents on the algorithm used to put data into or get data out of the specified format

The latter are much more common.

Related pages on ESP Wiki

• Harm to standards and compatibility

External links

• Digital Patent Infringement and the ITC, 30 April 2014, Patently-O (only tangentially related)
• Patenting a Data Structure?, 7 April 2014, Patently-O