RE: Mersenne: Re: The Second Mersennium Behind Us, How Now For MyriadThe Third?
" Dickens applied for the patent in October 1996 " I was using windowing in 1987, so his patent is invalid (prior invention). The problem now becomes, will these companies choose to challenge the patent in court, spending millions of dollars, or will each company alone figure it's cheaper to pay this guy than to pay their lawyers. Apparently, that's been the tactic for many other similar "patent" cases lately. What the article termed "submarine patents" for their stealth. Sad...isn't it? Let's all be thankful that neither Lucas nor Lehmer decided to patent their formula! :-) _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Mersenne: Re: The Second Mersennium Behind Us, How Now For MyriadThe Third?
On Tue, Jan 11, 2000 at 09:46:09AM -0700, Aaron Blosser wrote: Dunno 'bout all that, but another problem was that in order to do a "quick and dirty" fix of the Y2K problem, a good number of people implemented windowing. The funny thing is, somebody has actually been granted a patent on this. Now. I saw that in DataEase, running on MS-DOS 3.21. Something like 10 years ago. I've heard some rumours that they're reconsidering that patent, though... /* Steinar */ -- Homepage: http://members.xoom.com/sneeze/ _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
RE: Mersenne: Re: The Second Mersennium Behind Us, How Now For MyriadThe Third?
On Tue, Jan 11, 2000 at 09:46:09AM -0700, Aaron Blosser wrote: Dunno 'bout all that, but another problem was that in order to do a "quick and dirty" fix of the Y2K problem, a good number of people implemented windowing. The funny thing is, somebody has actually been granted a patent on this. Now. I saw that in DataEase, running on MS-DOS 3.21. Something like 10 years ago. I've heard some rumours that they're reconsidering that patent, though... 'Tis true. It doesn't surprise me that many companies are teaming up to fight the patent. Windowing was *the* best way to quickly fix all that software, and a good number of software vendors used it. If I recall right, the guy who owns the patent wasn't asking for much in the way of royalties from each company (but amounts to a lot when totalled), but I think the fight revolves around whether this guy really invented the idea, or whether it's just one of those common sense things that can't be patented, or something like that. MSNBC online probably has a story on it in their tech section. Ah...sure enough: http://www.msnbc.com/news/72.asp _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
RE: Mersenne: Re: The Second Mersennium Behind Us, How Now For MyriadThe Third?
At 04:47 PM 1/11/00 -0700, Aaron Blosser wrote: 'Tis true. It doesn't surprise me that many companies are teaming up to fight the patent. Windowing was *the* best way to quickly fix all that software, and a good number of software vendors used it. If I recall right, the guy who owns the patent wasn't asking for much in the way of royalties from each company (but amounts to a lot when totalled), but I think the fight revolves around whether this guy really invented the idea, or whether it's just one of those common sense things that can't be patented, or something like that. This is getting off topic, but: The criteria for something to be patentable is that the average practitioner in the field wouldn't think of it. So it boils down to whether the average programmer would think of windowing, given the problem. ++ | Jud McCranie | || | 137*2^197783+1 is prime! (59,541 digits, 11/11/99)| ++ _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Re: The Second Mersennium Behind Us, How Now For MyriadThe Third?
At 09:54 PM 1/11/00 +, Steinar H. Gunderson wrote: Dunno 'bout all that, but another problem was that in order to do a "quick and dirty" fix of the Y2K problem, a good number of people implemented windowing. The funny thing is, somebody has actually been granted a patent on this. Whoops! I'm violating someone's patent! (Don't tell anyone.) ++ | Jud McCranie | || | 137*2^197783+1 is prime! (59,541 digits, 11/11/99)| ++ _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
RE: Mersenne: Re: The Second Mersennium Behind Us, How Now For MyriadThe Third?
At 04:47 PM 1/11/00 -0700, Aaron Blosser wrote: Off topic, but: If I recall right, the guy who owns the patent wasn't asking for much in the way of royalties from each company (but amounts to a lot when totalled), but I think the fight revolves around whether this guy really invented the idea, or whether it's just one of those common sense things that can't be patented, or something like that. MSNBC online probably has a story on it in their tech section. Ah...sure enough: http://www.msnbc.com/news/72.asp . " Dickens applied for the patent in October 1996 " I was using windowing in 1987, so his patent is invalid (prior invention). ++ | Jud McCranie | || | 137*2^197783+1 is prime! (59,541 digits, 11/11/99)| ++ _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Re: The Second Mersennium Behind Us, How Now For MyriadThe Third?
If I recall right, the guy who owns the patent wasn't asking for much in the way of royalties from each company (but amounts to a lot when totalled), but I think the fight revolves around whether this guy really invented the idea, or whether it's just one of those common sense things that can't be patented, or something like that. This is getting off topic, but: The criteria for something to be patentable is that the average practitioner in the field wouldn't think of it. So it boils down to whether the average programmer would think of windowing, given the problem. There also can't be 'prior art'... "windowing" has been used since the 70s if not earlier. There were some early 1960s systems that used a single digit for the year... they used windowing as a way of dealing with the Y1970 problem :) -jrp _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
