Before pontificating on "stupid" patents, PLEASE study the general field just a tiny bit! These are defensive patents and the unfortunate patent systems (mostly led by the U.S.) make these very necessary. The only stupidity involved (other than the whole patent process) is not understanding the larger business world. Firms exist that buy up "stupid" patents, often written so broadly as to cover practically anything, and then sue major companies for patent infringement. Filing the suits cost relatively little. Fighting the suits costs $considerably$ more. Sure, the patent owners would probably lose in court, but the whole process costs the target companies $money$ and time --- any they often "settle" ($$$) out of court to avoid larger expenses. Of course, that is the whole objective of the exercise.
It would be stupid for IBM (and other companies) not to try to protect themselves, and filing trivial defensive patents is one method of doing so. If you want to pontificate about stupid functions, please move your target to the patent systems. It can be a very complex topic in the modern world where the dividing line between hardware and software and algorithms is so fuzzy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
