USPTO Issues Microsoft A Patent For 60's Technology

theodp writes "On Tuesday, the USPTO issued U.S. patent no. 6,594,674 to Microsoft for a System and method for creating multiple files from a single source file, which describes a fundamental IBM Mainframe file structure, the Partitioned Data Set, that's been around since the 60's and is familiar to virtually anyone who's used a mainframe text editor in the past five decades. To the amazement of readers of an IBM newsgroup, neither Microsoft nor the USPTO examiners seem to be aware of the existence of the Mainframe-based prior art, which is not cited in the patent."

Comments

Prior Art

[kurosawdust]

From poll "Number of Non-Hidden Files in your Home Directory", code snippet submitted by AC:

for ((a=0; a<99999999; a++));
do
&nbsp; touch file$a;
done

Creates multiple files from a single source file.
Prior art.
My foot's asleep.

Next patent

[Baikala]

In another news Microsoft applies for a patent on "circular-shaped-low-friction moving support for vehicles" as an adendum to it's "Microsoft wheel patent".

Officials are not aware of any prior art

Re:Next patent

[Stephen Samuel]

Low-friction wheels don't work very well, as is evidenced by the difficulty in driving on ice,

Standard Microsoft design error for well known process.
(sigh)

the 60's

[jpsst34]

I can't speak for the Patent Office, but MS aren't aware of this prior art because he's simply too young. In the 60's, Gates hadn't even smoked his first crack pipe yet.