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Coder Accuses IBM of Patenting His Work

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the do-your-own-work dept.

ttsiod writes "Back in 2001, I coded HeapCheck, a GPL library for Windows (inspired by ElectricFence) that detected invalid read/write accesses on any heap allocations at runtime — thus greatly helping my debugging sessions. I published it on my site, and got a few users who were kind enough to thank me — a Serbian programmer even sent me $250 as a thank you (I still have his mails). After a few years, Microsoft included very similar technology in the operating system itself, calling it PageHeap. I had more or less forgotten this stuff, since for the last 7 years I've been coding for UNIX/Linux, where valgrind superseded Efence/dmalloc/etc. Imagine my surprise when yesterday, Googling for references to my site, I found out that the technology I implemented, of runtime detection of invalid heap accesses, has been patented in the States, and to add insult to injury, even mentions my site (via a non-working link to an old version of my page) in the patent references! After the necessary 'WTFs' and 'bloody hells' I thought this merits (a) a Slashdotting, and (b) a set of honest questions: what should I do about this? I am not an American citizen, but the 'inventors' of this technology (see their names in the top of the patent) have apparently succeeded in passing this ludicrous patent in the States. If my code doesn't count as prior art, Bruce Perens's Efence (which I clearly state my code was inspired from) is at least 12 years prior! Suggestions/cursing patent trolls most welcome."

1 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. You won't manage to break the patent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    So I say, ask for money. Go to the company that owns the patent, say that you clearly have a case as you are mentioned in the patent itself, so prior art is recognized. Threaten slightly, ask for a pay. Depending on your inclinations you may want to give this money to the EFF or keep it for yourself.

    Alternatively, you can contact the EFF and ask them if they have any idea on how to use this situation in the battle against software patents. You clearly have the legal high grounds on this one and the EFF has the muscle to make a case out of it. Maybe it can add to the stockpile of arguments they prepare in the case patent war is declared on OSS.