As I write this late Saturday night, it is now Sunday in Japan. According to the Unisys web site's “LZW Patent and Software Information [1]” page, “The U.S. LZW patent expired on June 20, 2003, the counterpart Canadian patent expires July 7, 2004, the counterpart patents in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy expire June 18, 2004, and the Japanese counterpart patents expire June 20, 2004.” It's over.
“LZW patent expires [2]”
And I have to wonder if Unisys ever made a profit on this patent, given the way they handled it.
[1] http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw