Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!convex!texsun!digi!jgay
From: jgay@digi.lonestar.org (john gay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: AT&T using patent to go after people using X
Message-ID: <1991Feb25.161416.4349@digi.lonestar.org>
Date: 25 Feb 91 16:14:16 GMT
References: <8428@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Organization: none
Lines: 30

From article <8428@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>, by zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle):
> In article <1991Feb24.175524.20105@coplex.uucp> dean@coplex.uucp (Dean Brooks) writes:
> 
>>BTW, does anyone think that AT&T can make a viable claim off this?
> 
> No, they can't.  However, there are a whole lot of companies out there

Unfortunately, yes they can.  They way the patent system works today they can.
There are quite a few current patents that are obvious that have been upheld
in court.  Among these is the XOR cursor technique that Cadtrak "owns" even
though it was used years before the patent was granted and is considered an
obvious technique by most software people.  The irony of the AT&T patent is
that it was used by MIT in the Lisp Machine System way before AT&T patented
it.  Since it was not documented very well, this may not count as prior art.
BTW, there is also a rumor that the use of include files (#include <stdio.h>)
has been patented.  At this time it is just a rumor, but a very persistent one.
For more info see the "Software Patents" article in the November 1990 issue of
Dr. Dobb's Journal.  Also check the gnu groups for on going discussions.

Then get pissed and join The League for Programming Freedom and write
your congress person and senator.  If you don't, you may end up having to
either write software only for a very large company (one that can afford the
legal hassle (cost, big $$) of patent searches, cross-licensing, etc. or
work in a different country in order to avoid some of the patent bullshit.
Of course this will be limited to the countries that don't have or recognize
algorithmic and software patents.

john gay.

No, I don't speak for my company (they don't even know that I can speak).