Is there an Asymmetric_numeral_systems patent?

Why does a

Asymmetric Numeral Systems

appear in the Trisquel Version of ZSTD

as the apt-get source zstd

shows for libzstd-1.4.8+dfsg

in doc/zstd_compression_format.md

have a link to

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_Numeral_Systems

and that link also has

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_Numeral_Systems#Patent_controversy

and the text there shows a freedom issue unless the patent is not real, as it may be Prior_art, I hope.

Though should Trisquel use a ZSTD without the Asymmetric Numeral Systems, just in-case?

Or not even use ZSTD at all?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_art

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/essays-and-articles.html#Laws

Quote from wikipedia.

"

The author of the novel ANS algorithm and its variants tANS and rANS specifically intended his work to be available freely in the public domain, for altruistic reasons. He has not sought to profit from them and took steps to ensure they would not become a "legal minefield", or restricted by, or profited from by others. In 2015, Google published a US and then worldwide patent for "Mixed boolean-token ans coefficient coding".[22] At the time, Professor Duda had been asked by Google to help it with video compression, so was intimately aware of this domain, having the original author assisting them.

Duda was not pleased by (accidentally) discovering Google's patent intentions, given he had been clear he wanted it as public domain, and had assisted Google specifically on that basis. Duda subsequently filed a third-party application[23] to the US Patent office seeking a rejection. The USPTO rejected its application in 2018, and Google subsequently abandoned the patent.[24]

In June 2019 Microsoft lodged a patent application called "Features of range asymmetric number system encoding and decoding".[25] The USPTO issued a final rejection of the application on October 27, 2020. Yet on March 2, 2021, Microsoft gave a USPTO explanatory filing stating "The Applicant respectfully disagrees with the rejections.",[26] seeking to overturn the final rejection under the "After Final Consideration Pilot 2.0" program.[27] After reconsideration, the USPTO granted the application on January 25, 2022.[28]

"

End quote.

https://www.gnu.org//philosophy/patent-reform-is-not-enough.html

Maybe seeing it was likely made before it may be Prior art and
Microsoft has made a mistake of fact, or did Microsoft add something?

Or maybe patents and copyright should not be thought of as real as shown in

Against Intelectual Property by N. Stephan Kinsella

as it's conclusion shows how copyright and patents try to take away your property.

Though most importantly

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2022%3A37&version=KJV

https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=Thou+shalt+love+the+Lord+thy+God+with+all+thy+heart%2C+and+with+all+thy+soul%2C+and+with+all+thy+mind.&version=KJV

shows how our minds should be used for good, so people are likely to invent, write, or discover nice things without any patents or copyright as that likely could be how our minds should be used, if inventing or writing is to be considered good at all.

And I think inventing or writing can be used in ways that are pleasing to God.

Though should Trisquel use a ZSTD without the Asymmetric Numeral Systems, just in-case?
Or not even use ZSTD at all?

By that reasoning, you would use no operating system:

Developing a large and complex program means combining many ideas, often hundreds or thousands of them. In a country that allows software patents, chances are that some substantial fraction of the ideas in your program will be patented already by various companies. Perhaps hundreds of patents will cover parts of your program. A study in 2004 found almost 300 US patents that covered various parts of a single important program.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/fighting-software-patents.html

I stick to what I wrote to you three days ago:

You almost always want to ignore [software patents]. If there is a really high risk that a given patent will be used against a free software program, then you can try to not depend on it too much. Indeed, in the worst-case scenario, that program may stop being developed or distributed. I very much doubt it will happen in the case of zstd.
https://trisquel.info/forum/minetest-may-not-build#comment-175564