INFOWORLD GRIPE LINE BY ED FOSTER Bookmark this page

  
Display: Sort:
Patently Absurd | 13 comments (13 topical) | Post A Comment
"Windowing" Patent[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by Anonymous User on Thu Apr 22, 2004 at 02:39:43 PM PDT

My personal favorite is the "Windowing" patent granted in the very late '90s.  There used to be a lot of old code that used two digit year values.  With Y2K coming, this became an issue.  When doing other changes on code in '91, I was asked to add logic to extend the two digit years to handle the century, assuming anything below 30 was 2000+.  No more detail than that. The logic I added looked about like this:

If YY < 30 THEN
  CCYY = YY + 2000
ELSE
  CCYY = YY + 1900

I was by no means the first to do this, and it was, of course, trivially obvious.  A few years later years that basic and now common technique came to be called "windowing," but in 1999, I was astonished to find that a fellow at McDonnell Douglas was granted a patent for this, and tried to get many large companies to pay for using HIS technique!  I read the patent, and while it tried to be obtuse, it did nothing more than my code.  And, I later learned, there are easily found examples going back to the '60s.  It never would have occured to me to even think of trying to patent that, any more than "I = I + 1"

The patent system needs major revision.  There is a question of whether it should be possible to patent software at all.  If it is, patents should only be for complex and unobvious logic, and for only a very limited number of years.  It is clear that software innovation is slowing dramatically, and legal battles are a big part of that.

[ Reply to This ]



yes[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#12)
by maderikapapa on Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 02:53:54 AM PDT

出会い系出会い系サイト出会い喫茶出会い掲示板ナンパ出会いカフェ人妻出会い無 009;系サイト優良出会い系攻略 完全無料。アダルトビデオアダルト動画アダルトアニメアダルト画像アダル 488;サイト無料DVDアダルト風俗サンプル無料風俗優良アダルトサイト比較海 806;。人妻画像人妻パラダイス知合い人妻援護会人妻コレクション風 439;告白。熟女画像東京熟女掲示板動画熟女ビデオおまんこオナニー。エロ画像エロフラッシュアニメ 456;ロ動画エロゲームエロ漫画無料エロサイト。エッチ画像エッチ動画エッチ小説写真エッチ 450;ニメエッチ0930。セックスアナルセックス画像セックス動画セックスフレンドスワッピングSEX写真セックスボランティセ 483;クス体位東京セックス仕方 SEX。おっぱい画像おっぱい村長おっぱい楽園掲示板お 387;ぱい命おっぱいゲーム。巨乳動画巨乳画像アイドル巨乳 522;示板風俗。セフレ募集セフレ掲示板セフレ画像掲示板セフレの作り方出会い無料素人セフレ。童貞狩りエロ漫画童貞狩り童貞喪失童貞オークション素人童貞逆援。不倫パートナー不倫出会い人妻不倫不倫を楽しみたい方にはお薦め 154;妻画像など満載出会いサイトを楽しむならココ無料出会いで一緒に遊ぼう出会いはLOVEｱｹﾞｲﾝで決まり

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Patently Absurd | 13 comments (13 topical) | Post A Comment
Display: Sort:

Menu
· create account
· faq
· search

Login
Make a new account
Username:
Password:

 HOME  NEWS  COLUMNS  BLOGS  PODCASTS  TECHNOLOGIES  TEST CENTER  EVENTS  CAREERS  IT EXEC-CONNECT   About Awards Contact Us 

Copyright © 2006, Reprints, Permissions, Licensing, IDG Network, Privacy Policy.
All Rights reserved. InfoWorld is a leading publisher of technology information and product reviews on topics including viruses,
phishing, worms, firewalls, security, servers, storage, networking, wireless, databases, and web services.

 ComputerWorld :: LinuxWorld :: Network World :: CIO :: PC World :: Darwin :: CMO :: CSO
IT Careers :: JavaWorld :: Macworld :: Mac Central :: Playlist :: GamePro :: GameStar :: Gamerhelp
ITWorld Canada :: Computerwoche :: Techworld UK :: tecChannel :: IDG.se :: IDG.no :: IDG.pl

create account | faq | search