From: emv%[email protected] (Edward Vielmetti)
Newsgroups: comp.patents
Subject: partial list of software patents
Date: 30 Sep 91 03:58:56 GMT
X-Mts: smtp

Here's something I saved from gnu.misc.discuss.

--Ed

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>Path: ox.com!caen!dali.cs.montana.edu!mintaka!mintaka!mernst
>From: [email protected] (Michael Ernst)
>Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
>Subject: Partial list of software patents
>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
>Date: 12 Jul 91 13:50:11 GMT
>Sender: [email protected]
>Distribution: gnu
>Organization: MIT Lab for Computer Science
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There have been several requests recently for lists of software patents.  I
maintain such a list, which I've included below.

Some of the information is sketchy.  If you know of patents that I haven't
included, or if you have more information about any of these, I would
appreciate hearing about it.

Patent disclosures can be acquired by sending $1.50 to
Patent and Trademark Office
Washington, D.C. 20231
                                       -Michael Ernst
                                        [email protected]

4,135,240
Protection of data file contents
filed 7/9/73
granted 7/16/79
This is the set uid bit patent granted to Dennis Ritchie

4,197,590
Method for dynamically viewing image elements stored in a random access
memory array
filed 1/19/78
granted 4/8/80
inventors Josef S. Sukonick; Gred J. Tilden
assignee NuGraphics, Inc.
Includes claims of "XOR feature permits part of the drawing to be moved or
'dragged' into place without erasing other parts of the drawing."
Twice upheld in court.  [Cadtrak now owns this?]

4,398,249
Process and apparatus for converting a source program into an object program
filed Aug 12, 1970
granted Aug 9, 1983
inventors Rene' K. Pardo and Remy Landau
This is the natural order spreadsheet recalculation patent recently
acquired by Refac, a litigation company.  Draws on ideas like forward
reasoning.

4,464,650
Apparatus and method for compressing data signals and restoring the
compressed data signals
filed 8/10/81
granted 8/7/84
Sperry Corporation (now Unisys)

4,514,818
Video image creation system which simulates a drafting tool
filed 12/1/81
granted 4/30/85

4,555,775
Dynamic generation and overlaying of graphic windows for multiple active
program storage areas
filed 10/7/82
granted 11/26/85
owned by AT&T.
Lawsuits of X window vendors threatened, since this covers backing store.
This was granted to Pike, I believe.

4,558,302
High speed data compression and decompression apparatus and method
filed 6/20/83
granted 12/10/85
Sperry Corporation (now Unisys)
inventor Welch
Covers the common "compress" algorithm published in IEEE Computer, June 1984.
also see Welch's article in CACM
[Is this the one?  or is it ...650?]
The text for patent "4,558,302 Dec. 10, 1985 Welch" can be ftped from
uunet.uu.net as pub/lzw-patent.Z

4,602,286
Video processing for composite images
filed 1/10/83
granted 7/22/86

4,633,416
Video image creation system which simulates a drafting tool
filed 7/29/85
granted 12/30/86

4,642,764
Method of developing formal identities and program bases in an optimizing
compiler
filed 8/13/84
granted 2/10/87
IBM
Optimizing compiler patent

4,642,765
Optimization of range checking
filed 4/15/85
granted 2/10/87

4,646,250
Data Entry Screen
filed 10/18/84
granted 2/24/87
assignee IBM
inventor John F. Childress
Required fields are highlighted until they are filled in; fields
incorrectly completed are also highlighted.

4,648,062
Method for providing an on line help facility for interactive information
handling systems
filed 2/1/85
granted 3/3/87
inventors Steven E. Johnson; John Karat; Thomas M. Ruiz
assignee IBM
Pop-up window described valid choices.

4,656,582
Generating sotrage reference instructions in an optimizing compiler
filed 2/4/85
granted 4/7/87

4,656,583
Method for improving global common subexpression elimination and code
motion in an optimizing compiler
filed 8/13/84
granted 4/7/87
owned by IBM

4,667,290
Compilers using a universal intermediate language
filed 9/10/84
granted 5/19/87

4,674,040
Merging of Documents
granted 6/16/87
assignee IBM
This is the so-called "include file patent".  It is cited in Brian Kahin's
article, "The Impact of Software Patents," in the Winter 1989 issue of the
EDUCOM Review (Vol. 24 No. 4).  Claim 1 is:
       A method for merging a portion of one document into another
       document, said method comprising:
         (a) including a reference to said another document to said
         portion; and
         (b) causing said portion to be merged with said another
         document and displayed in merged form.
It covers displaying part of one document within the display of another, in
response to a kind of cross-reference.  This is, of course, a basic idea of
hypertext.  So many hypertext systems would infringe this patent.

4,736,308
Search/retrieval system
filed 7/10/85
granted 4/5/88
inventor Paul Heckel
Hyperracks Inc.
A system allowing parts of multiple cards to be displayed on the screen at
the same time.  Apple was being sued over hypercard on the basis of this
patent, but settled.

4,736,866
Transgenic non-human mammals
filed 6/22/84
granted 4/12/88
Harvard's mouse patent

4,742,450
Method to share copy on write segment for mapped files
filed 2/16/86
granted 5/3/88

4,864,501
Word annotation system
Filed 10/7/87
Granted 9/5/89
Assignee Houghton Mifflin Company
Inventors Henry Kucera, Alwin B. Carus
Storing words in a dictionary.

4,864,502
Sentence annalyzer
Filed 10/7/87
Granted 9/5/89
Assignee Houghton Mifflin Company
Inventors Henry Kucera, Alwin B. Carus
Parses sentences into parts of speech.

4,864,503
Method of using a created international language as an intermediate pathway
in translation between two national languages
Filed 2/5/87
Granted 9/5/89
Assignee Toltram, Ltd.
Inventor Bruce G. Tolin
Use of interpretive steps instead of strict word-for-word translation.

4,956,809
Method for cononical ordering of binary data for portable operating systems
filed 12/29/88
granted 9/11/90
assignee Mark Williams Co, Chicago, Ill.
inventors Johann George, Trevor J. Thompson, David G. Conroy, Frederick H. Tudor

^M
3,380,029
Sorting System
granted 4/23/68
assignee Applied Data Research, Inc.
inventor Martin Goetz
Earliest software patent?

4,200,770
Cryptographic Apparatus and Method
"Diffie-Hellman"
Public Key partners has exclusive sublicensing rights.

4,218,582
Public Key Cryptographic Apparatus and Method
"Hellman-Merkle"
Public Key partners has exclusive sublicensing rights.

4,405,829
Cryptographic Communications System and Method
"RSA"
Public Key partners has exclusive sublicensing rights.

4,424,414
Exponential Cryptographic Apparatus and Method
"Hellman-Pohlig"
Public Key partners has exclusive sublicensing rights.

4,555,772
filed 5/31/83
assignee IBM
Supposedly "multiple cursors for multiple windows, using an Xor-writing technique"

4,648,044
Technowledge Inc.
Supposedly on "basic AI techniques"

4,486,857
granted 12/84
inventor Paul Heckel
Hyperracks Inc.
A file system of more than one card, each with multiple fields, where all
the fields can be scrolled independently.  Apple was sued over this and
settled, licensing it.

4,571,678
Register allocation and spilling via graph coloring
filed 11/5/82
granted 2/18/86.
Owned by IBM.  Inventor is Gregory Chaitin from Yorktown Heights, NY.
It's one of a group of 16 or so patents filed by IBM as result of their
801/PL.8 development.  They also mention things like global common
subexpression elimination and optimization of array bounds checking.

4,648,067
Footnote management for display and printing
granted 3/3/87

4,648,071
Designation of footnotes and footnote reference
granted 3/3/87

4,656,602
Method of control placement of image of document to be printed on paper in
an interactive text processing system
granted 4/7/87

4,674,042
Editing business charts
granted 6/16/87

4,752,877 4,722,055 4,642,768
Patents on a computer system that calculates the amount required for one
year at a particular college, informing parents how much to deposit to
guarantee that a year's tuition, some years down the road, will be covered.
Upheld in court.

4,807,182: "Apparatus and Method for Comparing Data Groups" dated Feb 21,
1989, owned by Advanced Software, Inc. of Sunnyvale, California.  Patent on
comparing text blocks by comparing hash codes and for displaying the
differing sections in two windows on one CRT ("or other suitable device".)
The "inventor" is listed as being a Cary L. Queen.

4,823,108
An Improved Display System and Memory Architecture and Method
granted 4/18/89 (Dandekar claims June 1989, though)
Quarterdeck Office Systems, Inc.
Someone (Kahin?) says:
An improved system for displaying images in "windows" on a computer screen.
Dandekar says:
Quarterdeck patents the multitasking DESQview environment sepcific process
-- a method of dealing with ill-behaved software that circumvents the
operating system for its displays, allowing it to work properly in a
multitasking environment.

4,814,746
Miller-Wegman compression scheme
granted March 1989

4,943,909
A patent is granted to AT&T on a method, based on origami, of allocating
processors to parts of a problem (say, an aerodynamic analysis).  Inventor
is Alan Huang.

Creating a split screen with a hotkey.

IBM data entry screen: required fields highlighted, nonrequired fields not.

Patent for the use of XOR to write a cursor to a screen and then to erase
it after it has moved.  This has been upheld twice in court.

AT&T has a patent on backing store for displays.  Interestingly, Richard
Stallman implemented this three years before the patent application was
filed, but didn't think it was worthwhile enough to publish a paper on.

RSA patent

James A. Woods ([email protected] (or ames!jaw)) says:
I am investigating, possibly for a case history to be
recycled to USENET, the particulars of data compression patents.
I am aware of the following patents: IBM's Miller-Wegman LZ variant,
those of Telcor and ACT [losing candidates for the British Telecom modem
standard], James A. Storer's work on limited lookahead as explicated in his
text "Data Compression (methods and theory)", Computer Science Press, 1988,
and the various patents pending associated with the Fiala and Greene
CACM article of April, 1989 on textual substitution methods.
If you have any lore, send it this way.

4,744,028
Method and Apparaqtus for Efficient Resource Allocation
granted 1988
Bell Laboratories
inventor Narendra K. Karmarkar
Can help airlines schedule planes and crews more efficiently.
Is this the linear programming patent?

4,646,256
Computer and Method for Solving the Discrete Bracewell Transformation
granted 1987
Stanford University
inventor Ronald N. Bracewell
Can be used in many fields to more quickly analyze data by computers.

4,797,847
Discrete Cosine Transform
granted 1989
inventor Pierre Duhamel of France
Can help send electronic signals more rapidly and store video data more
compactly.


4,768,159
Squared Radix Discrete Fourier Transform
granted 1988
owner TRW
Computer system similar to the Discrete Cosine Transform (see 4,797,847).

4,797,729
System Incorporating an Error-tolerant Picture Compression Algorithm
owner Eastman Kodak
Can minimize distoritions when pictures are stored in computers.

Matt Vea's patent on setting and unsetting a bit in an idle loop to see
whether the CPU is working or idle.  (Applied for 2/86, received pre-10/90.

Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.'s patent on a program to swtich its
modems from transmit mode to receive mode.  It won $10 million damages from
three infringing manufacturers who'd reverse-engineered via clean-room
techniques.

- -end-

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