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From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva)
Subject: Re: Patents: What they are. What they aren't. Other factors.
Message-ID: <id.ZIFU.X4D@ferranti.com>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
References: <1992Oct20.201929.3183@fcom.cc.utah.edu> <id.R3AU.4ZF@ferranti.com> <1992Oct23.204711.17987@fcom.cc.utah.edu>
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1992 17:59:20 GMT
Lines: 41
In article <1992Oct23.204711.17987@fcom.cc.utah.edu> terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes:
> By "software patents" I meant "patents on software", no some new form of
> patent.
Right. A new form of patent.
> For instance, how many clever methods of putting a cursor up have
> resulted from the XOR patent?
I don't know. The only methods currently in use are hardware that implements
virtual bitmaps, like on the Amiga, or saving and restoring the underlying
bitmap. Both of these have reasons for use (higher performance, more
versatility) that have nothing to do with XOR, and wer developed at around
the same time.
> How many compression techniques have
> resulted from a company ont wanting to license the LZW patents?
So far as I know, only one, and it fell afoul of other patents.
> How many
> methods of updating a previously occluded window have come from not
> wanting to license the backing store patent?
I don't know of any that don't predate Pike's paper.
> >About 6 months ago, when I assembled the kids' swing set. It had a built
> >in lock nut and a nylon bearing. I'm pretty sure that technology itself
> >(integral nylon bearings) is fairly new...
> This is not new; a combination of existing technologies isn't patentable.
> Perhaps I should have asked "when was the las time you saw a new patentable
> design for a sheet metal screw?".
I'm pretty sure it's patentable. I've seen similar fastners described in NASA
Tech Briefs that were patented.
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