Hi, Isn''t it true that patented image format - for eg:-bmp, gif etc have to paid for if used in a commercial product like a commercial game or software ? To make question clear - let me give an example. Consider I have a commercial game "x". I use "y" bitmaps in it with bmp format. Now if the format was patented would the company making the game have to pay some kind of patent license and if so how much do they generally range to. Also What would the issue be for non-commercial products. Thank you.

You need to pay a license fee to make a program that _writes_ .gif files.

Programs that _Read_ these files do not need a license.