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Canadian Company Claims RDF Patent
quinticent writes: "Looks like they are at it again. Companies seem to like to let a standard become, well, standard before pulling out the lawyers to claim they own a patent on it. Now some Canadian company is claiming they own a US patent on RDF (doesn't Slashdot use RDF?). When will the US government realize that allowing patents on common ideas is just wrong? The CNet article is here."
(doesn't Slashdot use RDF?)
Here it is.
They sure love that word.
As endo means inner and Dynamic means changing, I guess they are sayinga an internally reconfigurable system.Or a system that can react without external interference. Sounds like anything that is based on
an interpreter/parser to me...but anyway
(a) generating an information structure and relationship in the memory of the computer as one or more Endo-Dynamic Sets (EDS), the EDS comprising a list of one or more Endo-Dynamic Information Nodes (EDINs), the EDINs each representing an atomic component of data, and the EDINs each comprising a subject identifier, an attribute identifier, and a bond identifier, wherein the bond identifier defines a relationship between the subject and attribute identifiers;
OK, we got a two objects, and a relationship between them. Hashtable, anyone?
Maybe there is some subtlety hidden in all that gibberish. I am a programmer, and I have trouble reading it, I feel sorry for the poor bloke at the patent office that had to struggle through it...assuming one did.
I realize that most computer programs, converted to english, would probably translate as well as that one did. Wopuldn't it be eiser if they just tried to patent their original source code.
Open Source Identity Management: FreeIPA.org
Slashdot does not use RDF.
/dev/null where it belongs. RDF can be used to create very complex graphs which computer systems can understand.
What you are thinking of is the slashdot RSS feed.
This is not true RDF. This is actually Rich Site Summary.
Early in the development of RSS there was a slight intermingling with RDF.
The only current remant is the shared RDF namespace that RSS 1.0 uses. Slashdot uses RSS 0.9 so I can understand the confusion.
True RDF is REALLY cool and I hope this patent gets knocked back to
We are working on a distributed Reputation system and RDF graphs will probably play a major role.
Also. If you are interested in doing some cool stuff with RSS I would recommend checking out Reptile
Kevin
Well, I suppose that *MAYBE* this could be interpreted as an RDF triple.
bond identifier == URI
endo-dynamic information node == a Resource
The deficency in the US Patent system isn't one of "common ideas". As has been mentioned, tires, computers, and many other things are all "common ideas". The problem is patenting *general* ideas. It's reasonable to patent a specific solution to the problem of getting to work (say, each of the parts in a Ford Explorer). It is *unreasonable* to allow a patent on the idea of using internal combustion to move people around. It is also reasonable to patent processes like a specific method of refining crude oil into gasoline. However, the Patent Office would never patent the *idea* of turing crude oil into gasoline. The breakdown of the US patent system came when it was extended into intellectual property and CS concepts. The Office has not drawn a distinction between a specific algorhythm and an idea that encompasses an entire range of solutions.