[sdiy] FM Synth Designs

[J.D. McEachin]

The patent expired in 1995.  See

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/report/news/july16/sondiusxg.html



On Mon, 12 Aug 2002, Tim Parkhurst wrote:

>
> Yamaha owns the patent on FM synthesis (bought it from Stanford University
> where it was originally developed by John Chowning), and they defend the
> patent with a VERY heavy hand. At one point, they even tried to sue an
> analog synth manufacturer (Moog, I believe) because the owner's manual for a
> VCO module stated that the linear CV input on the VCO allowed FM synthesis.
>
> If anyone tried to make a commercial FM synth, I'm sure Yamaha would be
> happy to send a team of lawyers in their direction.