The chilling effect of software patents

[Mike Waters]

In article <14323 at ulysses.att.com> smb at ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) writes:
>In article <10957 at pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, jbuck at galileo.berkeley.edu (Joe Buck) writes:
>} Possibly Usenix can get into the act.  I have a mailing from them in
>} front of me that says the following (as part of a membership survey):
>} 
>} Software Patents
>} 
>} The US Patent Office has recently issued patents on some disturbing things --
>} like the concept of an include file.
>
>Speaking of which -- does anyone have the patent number for this patent?
>I'd like to see for myself what it really says.

How about a synopsis, title or even some keywords for a search?
A date of issue would even narrow it down.

Typically these patents are issued with a title that doesn't give a lot
of clues about the terms coined (later) which describe their use.

For example the (in)famous "spreadsheet patent" #4,398,249, issued Aug. 12
1970 is titled "Process and Apparatus for Converting a Source Program
into an Object Program". Basically a compiler for a program written as
interacting cells - we now call it a spreadsheet.

I would be willing to do a reasonable amount of work to track this down,
but not to search almost a million patents by hand!

-- 
           *Mike Waters    AA4MW/7  waters at nddsun1.sps.mot.com *
Chemicals, n.:
	Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.