source file: m1524.txt
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 09:39:26 -0600 (MDT)

Subject: 19 tone patent

From: John Starrett <jstarret@tiger.cudenver.edu>

All-
	I read with amusement and dismay Paul Hahn's reference to the 
patent issued to Yamaha for the use of 19TET on keyboards, guitars, wind 
and brass instruments. It a sad fact of life that patents are issued 
every day for items and ideas in long and common use. If I were to market 
a 19TET guitar Yamaha could legally stop me, even though I had been 
building them for years before they filed the patent. Luckily, 
microtonalism is just a passing fad, and we won't have to worry about 
anything like that.

John Starrett
http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret