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LSI Patents the Doubly-Linked List
An anonymous reader writes "Back in April, LSI was granted patent number 7028023. This is a patent on a stunning new technique in data structures ... the concept that a linked list can in fact have multiple orderings. Of course, this has been used since the beginning of (computer) time in the form of doubly-linked lists. Even if LSI wants to (somehow) claim that the doubly-linked list doesn't count as prior art, maintaining linked lists of graphical objects sorted by both x and y co-ordinates for collision detection has been done since "graphical objects" meant ASCII characters on a green-on-black screen, and has probably been widespread in databases for probably even longer."
Patents do not have to be meaningful, or even have a remote chance of standing up in court. They are weapons in corporate world and you use them mostly to cause damage. If your public company is sued you lose money in legal fees, might lose investor confidence in a critical moment and overall end up in a loss even if you easily won it. Just look at Research In Motion if you need to see how much damage can frivolous patent deal.
As someone that's currently working on some of LSI's driver code (as a customer, bought in), I wouldn't be at all surprised if they think its something new. Their code is terribly unstructured, uncommented, makes use of dynamically changing function pointers, has random inline assembler and has little in the way of API layering to make it understandable. Its a nightmare from a developers point of view. They probably think its a new and exciting breakthrough. :(
a patent on "An array data structure that automatically grows itself when it's current size is exceeded"...
:)
That patent is already owned by Microsoft, and is in use in their operating systems and device drivers. Most people call it "bloat"
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
This very same examiner (John Breene) has also granted patents #6944634 (file caching) and #6745181 (query based search).
If you describe something in a complicated enough manner then it is quite possible to pwnfuse someone into accepting it. Now if there was only some way to demonstrate prior art or the fact that it is an obvious function..
Until that day comes along, I guess we just have to see Parent and ensure we keep patenting appropriately.
Oops, I now have a doubly-linked post. I suppose I should expect a call from LSI soon.
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
And thus, the company never publishes the things they discovered and society has to keep reinventing them, since everyone who discovers them keeps them secret. Whereas with patents, the company gets a monopoly on that particular thing for 20 years and then society is free to use it for eternity. What you propose just results is massive duplication of research.
Give the man a cookie. Finally, someone who actually understands the purpose of patents. The whole deal, here, is that, in the past, people just kept their inventions secret if they could. The end result? Techniques could die with their inventor (read about Damascus steel for a great example of this). And, as you say, meanwhile people have to duplicate the effort.
Patents, therefore, are a tradeoff. They protect the inventor while encouraging them to disclose their techniques. Thus, the inventor gets something (a government protected monopoly for a limited period), and society gets something (access to the details of the technology).
As for software patents, I have no problem with them on the surface (well, except for those that are obvious, but that's a problem with the patent office, not patents in general). However, I think software patents should have a more limited lifespan. After all, 20 years is a *very* long time in the world of computing (just think how different things were in 1986). Something like 4 or 5 years makes far more sense.
Patents, therefore, are a tradeoff. They protect the inventor while encouraging them to disclose their techniques. Thus, the inventor gets something (a government protected monopoly for a limited period), and society gets something (access to the details of the technology).
The problem is that for almost all software patents, a monopoly is being granted for details we did not actually need to know, because they are obvious to anyone 'skilled in the art'. Or even 'unskilled in the finger daubing'. The value of the monopoly is much, much, greater than the value of the information we're getting.
I'd venture that this is true not just of software patents, but in software, the progress made in the absence of a patent regime for so many years spoke volumes about the lack of a need for patent protection.
Why do people persist in the "nuke" and microwave myth?
Because "nuke" is 3 times shorter than "microwave," and approximately 5 times more fun to say.
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.