TTS patents and open source

Archives TTS (Text-to-Speech)
#1

While searching for an open source text to speech option, I saw many open source implementations here:
https://awesomeopensource.com/projects/text-to-speech

But then I saw that Google patented this (Speech synthesis using deep neural networks):
https://patents.google.com/patent/US8527276B1/en

So I am wondering what is the impact on open source software doing neural text to speech. I mean surely someone can use neural text to speech for personal learning but I am guessing no commercial product can use it without a license from Google?

#2

Probably one for the lawyers (I’m not a lawyer nor providing advice in this response :slightly_smiling_face:)

Two points:

  1. My understanding is that non-commercial use does not necessarily excludes one from risk of patent infringement although it seems like it’s not generally pursued.

  2. In my initial scan of the text, it looks remarkably broad (perhaps their intent?) but what seems notable is that it references prior patents involving TTS with neural networks, so presumably it can’t be that broad or it would fall foul of the requirement for novelty.