Dark Shakari's latest pronouncement on video encoding patents was to accuse someone of patenting his idea by reading commit logs, and argue at the same time that the idea was obvious to anyone and therefore not patentable. His evidence that it must have been copied? Because it
didn't include some later changes he made. (Note this doesn't even pass a basic logic test, never mind constitute a sophisticated take on the current patent situation). He then retracted the accusation.
http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/archives/589
Update: Tandberg claims they came up with the algorithm independently: to be fair, I can actually believe this to some extent, as I think the algorithm is way too obvious to be patented. Of course, they also claim that the algorithm isn’t actually identical, since they don’t want to lose their patent application.
I still don’t trust them, but it’s possible it’s merely bad research (and thus being unaware of prior art) as opposed to anything malicious. Furthermore, word from within their office suggests they’re quite possibly being honest: supposedly the development team does not read x264 code at all. So this might just all be very bad luck.
Regardless, the patent is still complete tripe, and should never have been filed.