Graphics Interchange Format and GIF are service marks of

CompuServe Incorporated. This only affects use of GIF

within Compuserve, and pass-through licensing for software to

access them, it doesn't affect anyone else's use of GIF. It

followed from a 1994 legal action by Unisys against CIS for

violating Unisys's LZW software patent. The CompuServe

Vice President has stated that "CompuServe is committed to

keeping the GIF 89A specification as an open, fully-supported,

non-proprietary specification for the entire on-line community

including the World-Wide Web".