Interwoven Patents Code Versioning

webengr writes "It seems like the USPO is pretty lenient when it comes to awarding software patents. CVS has been around for a long time, but now Interwoven has been awarded a new patent covering version control of web assets. The claims include, 'The use of a hierarchical file system and an object repository for representing and hosting content and its structure,' and 'The combined concepts of file history, versioning, comparison, and merging as it relates to content, provide an archive of all individual changes as well as collections of changes so they can be versioned and audited.'"

Comments

Re:The PTO has no incentive *not* to grant patents

[Sanity]

Wasn't an advance in technology

Much as people might hate to admit it, the film industry has been responsible for numerous advances in technology over the years, many of which have found applications outside the movie industry.

Again, not an advance in technology.

Bringing a new technology from the labratory to millions of homes is an advance in technology.

I'm not sure the Internet is at any risk of disappearing due to this, or even affected at all really.

Tell that to those whose universities are monitoring their internet traffic as a result of RIAA threats.

Not true at all. The GPL would be entirely unenforceable if works distributed under it were not granted IP protections.

The GPL fights fire with fire. Its proponents would much prefer a world without intellectual property laws, but since they do exist, it is only pragmatic to use them for their own ends.

There is a big difference between endorsing something's existence, and acknowledging its existence.

Re:The PTO has no incentive *not* to grant patents

[sql*kitten]

It's much more of a philosophical thing. If everything was "free" then we wouldn't need the GPL.

Yes, and if everything was free, we wouldn't need copyright. Things like food, housing, clothes, cars, electricity, computers...

It's much more of a practical thing.