Whats the easiest way to show someone this hash is patents free ?

[yassinm]

Is there a link that would satisfy someone who wants to know if this hashing algorithm is patents free or no ? and yes i am not a lawyer but i felt i should ask just in case someone here has the answer. I can understand if no one has that answer.

[Cyan4973]

I would be very surprised if there was any patent risk here.
Hashing is all pure math.
This is basically the unpatentable field by excellence.

[yassinm]

My apologies for asking this but do you mean non patentable anywhere or just in europe? and yes I live in north america where the patent laws are muddier than the other side of the ocean :)

[Cyan4973]

Math are labelled unpatentable even in US.

[Bulat-Ziganshin]

ANS is math too. It doesn't stopped patent trolls (nor Google).

[Cyan4973]

Well, due to the low bar of admission of patents, I wouldn't be surprised if someone successfully patented something on "2+2". But then, when trying to monetize through litigation, it's necessary to defend such patent in court, and that's where it's a lot harder to justify.

Anyway, this is just a matter of where the current US legal system is. Any 2-lines of codes are subject to the same kind of "danger". There's no point in targeting a specific project about a general problem that's broadly applicable to everything.