Prior Art to Squash Database Patent?

Marianne Winslett asks: "I'm looking for prior art to help squash a US patent that I think should never have been granted. In particular, I am looking for applications with a relational database back end, X-windows user interface, and application code somewhere in between. Think of it as an example of a 3-tier architecture, with a very thin client and a remote relational database back end. The application must have been released by the end of 1991." The patent in question was not revealed by the submittor on advice from legal counsel. Anyone know of any application that might satisfy these requirements?

"For any such application, I need to know

1. Its name,
2. Where or by whom it was created,
3. A brief description of its functionality,
4. Its release date in the US (pre-1992),
5. Ideally a pointer to one or more pieces of evidence documenting the three previous points, such as a manual, release notes, internal or external mail, press releases, etc. (either electronic or on paper), and
6. Contact information for a person or persons who would be willing to swear under oath that the software had been released by the given date and that the evidence documenting its existence (if any) is what it appears to be.

The lawyers have asked me not to say which patent this lawsuit is about, but by the nature of the prior art that I'm looking for you can tell that it affects just about everyone and really should not have been granted. I figure that there must have been hundreds of such systems out there in 1991; because time is very short, I hope that the community can help me find them.

Marianne Winslett
Professor, Computer Science, University of Illinois at U-C
http://drl.cs.uiuc.edu"

Comments

i have several

[Blue Lang]

1) A company called QSP has had a 3 tier finacial suite around for the last 15 or 20 years. I dunno about the x-windows interface, tho.

character gui -> mainframe broker -> database.

2) XDM. That's right, the X display manager. Login Screen -> PAM -> /etc/passwd

3) IBM's callup application. It's a program to look up info on IBM employees, and it has every interface known to man. I'm willing to be that some Unix dork back in the day wrote an X front end to it. It's prolly even more than 3 tiers.

as an aside, who cares why she wants the patent shut down? it's a software patent on obvious technology, and it can foad.

good luck,
blue

DBConnect for Ingres on the early 90s NeXT cube?

[King Babar]

The NeXT, which originally came out in the 80s, had a nice database kit (DBKit) that could be used to write apps for relational databases. So any NeXT station running such an app remotely could be of note for this search. (Although, alas, that app might not be X-based...this was the NeXT). The announcement of an Ingres tool for the NeXT appears here.

If this doesn't fit the bill, I really think the possibility of an Ingres-related application fitting your requirements is pretty high. Ingres was widely available in the academic/university community, supported remote connections from Unix, and almost certainly sported at least one X-based app.

Found in a quick google search...

[jackmama]

This document, which is copyright 1993, describes a similar system. If nothing else, it may give you a starting point to talk to some people that developed similar applications prior to that one.

Here's one from the late 1980's

[xixax]

http://www.computer.org/proceedings/meta97/papers/ pshelley/pshelley.html

The paper describes components of a metadata system that uses middleware to combine an X11 UI with distributed databases. Was started in 1989 and I came across it in 1993 when it was well established and indeed in decline (the X11 client at any rate).

Also:

http://www.anu.edu.au/CNASI/pubs/OnDisc95/docs/O NL46.html

X.

xrn

[bwt]

xrn is the X-windows front end to NNTP news.

I don't know when it was created, but xrn has been around a while. It's on version 9.02 by now.

I guess it's not really a "relational" database, though, but it certainly is a 3-tier database with X-windows front end.

Which patent is this?

[rkent]

Well, I can understand if the professor has been asked not to reveal the name of the offending patent, but that doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't know.

Just in case I pick the right one: I hereby swear that I have never met or been in any sort of contact with Professor Winslett, and I'm just doing this to be a pest, and not out of any sort of collusion :)

Anyway, some guesses:

• US6069627: Extender user interface Describes an environment "that supports the development of Internet and Intranet applications." Likely not "the one," since this application was in 1997. Filed by big blue.
• US5335346: Access control policies for an object oriented database, including... That's right, a copyright on access policies. Filed in late 1991, but doesn't deal directly with any interfacing, let alone x-windows. Again, an IBM possession.
• US5428737: Comprehensive bilateral translation between SQL and graphically depicted queries Yet another IBM patent. Doesn't deal directly with *relational* databases, though that's kind of implied by using SQL. And it's all about graphical representation of queries.
• US5212787: Method and apparatus for accessing a relational database without exiting an object-oriented environment Once again, filed by IBM (yes, I found some patents that weren't IBM - this is not a conspiracy theory). In 1991. Looks like there's some multi-tier stuff in here, with what the client has to do and what the server has to do... almost looks like they have a patent on WebObjects here.

Bleagh... To find others possibilities, check here. I've made myself sick looking through all these patents; I'm more convinced than ever that our USPTO is in bad need of an overhaul.

Re:WAIS Z39.50 1988 Linkage

[Money__]

Hey, try this: googl e search on"Z39.50-1988"

or this:http://www .cni.org/pub/NISO/docs/Z39.50-brochure/50.brochure .part01.html

or this: http://www.i fla.org/documents/libraries/cataloging/metadata/gi ls-i.txt

That last link has a lot of very good low level contrast between the 1988 version and the early 90s version. Now all you need is someone to standup and swear they deployed Z39.50 1988 when it came out.

MIT's Moira fits the bill it would seem

[john@iastate.edu]

Moira is a system management system consisting of thin clients (command line, curses, X, web, etc) a middleware server and a relational DB under it all. We've been using it here since 1990 so it was obviously disclosed before 1991. Look in ftp://athena-dist.mit.edu/pub/ATHENA/moira for papers, source, etc.

WAIS

[burris]

WAIS seems to fit the bill. A client, some server code, and a relational database back end.

"Grant 'em all and let the courts sort 'em out." - USPTO Motto

Re:what underlying political motivations?

[NaughtyEddie]

perhaps he works for some small software startup

Or perhaps she is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois.

3-Tier

[caver]

1. I can't recall it's name, it was 12 years ago.
2. It was created by a man named Guy Pope, at the USAF Standard System Center, Gunter AFB, Montgomery Albama.
3. It allowed users to enter/retrieve records (accounting information).
4. It was released before I started working for them in June 1988.
5. I really can't point out where to find it (it is a military application, though). You might want to try to contact them about it. The group is GAFS (General Acounting and Finance Systems).
6. You can contact me (caver@caver.org) as I will swear it was there. I was the release manager for our group for 2 years, I ought to know what I released.

It was a C front end, runing over DOS, that allowed you to enter information that was then sent to a COBOL back end (yes, COBOL) which then retrieved/wrote the data from/to an AFORMS (Air Force blah blah Relational blah blah blah) database.

We didn't think this was original in 1988, how they thought it was original in 1991 is beyond me.

If you need to know more

[winslett]

If you know of an appropriate application, but don't know enough about this case to commit to disclosure, and have questions that I'm not allowed to answer (is the case really important to my employer? who is suing whom? is this person really who she says she is? etc.) then I can ask the lawyers to call you. I would think that it would be in the lawyers' best interest to answer your questions if doing so would give them another compelling example of prior art, especially if your example was in wide use.

--Marianne Winslett