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Re: Is b-tree index patented?

From: Michael Gast <mig-sm_at_web.de>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 15:08:17 +0200
Message-ID: <3F968141.4080501_at_web.de> 






Hi Alfredo,



Alfredo Novoa schrieb:


> "Mikito Harakiri" <mikharakiri_at_iahu.com> wrote in message news:<k6dlb.10$5H6.170_at_news.oracle.com>...



>> "Alfredo Novoa" <alfredo_at_ncs.es> wrote in message
>> news:e4330f45.0310210351.343fabbe_at_posting.google.com...
>> > > Why new
>> > > algorithm is not an invention?
>> >
>> > Because algorithms are mathematics and mathematics has nothing
>> > inventive in itself.
>> 
>> I beg your pardon, but you sound much like Nobel. Why such discrimination?




> 

> Because inventions are devices or concrete methods and processes, not


> abstract ideas.

> 

> Patents were created for devices and industrial processes, not for

> logic. Most of the original reasons for the patent creation don't

> apply to algorithms.

> 

> For instance industrial research is extremely expensive, and without

> patents it would be very difficult to do research in the industry.

> Patents are intended to benefit the whole society.

> 

> However, I have not seen a dramatic increase in the research after

> algorithm patents were stablished (only in US and Japan), but all the

> negative effects of patents still apply.

> 

> In this case the cost for the society is higher than the benefit.

> 

>> How about cryptography? Nice application of math to practical problems. US
>> Patent 3,962,539 describes the Data Encryption Standard (DES).




> 

> I don't know a lot about DES, it has a bad reputation, but in the case


> of RSA, the patent was an important dead weight which slowed down the

> use of public key cryptography for many years.

> 

>> > Imagine that Codd had patented the application of logic to the data
>> > management field. It would be ridiculous IMO.
>> 
>> I see nothing wrong with it. It would be inventor who get's rewarded.




> 

> There are other ways for geting rewarded.


> 

>> How
>> Codd is different from Alexander Graham Bell?




> 

> Bell didn't patented the idea of distant voice communication, he


> patented a concrete implementation method and a device.

> 

> BTW, Bell was not the first person to invent the telephone.

> 

> 

> Regards

>   Alfredo




Thanks a lot for your comment. I fully agree with you.



Some additional comments:



    
  
  1.   Computer software is protected by international copy rights. From my
point of view as a software analyst, architect and developer this fits
for my company and for me.

  
  2.   The success of the internet only was possible due to open standards.
RSA was protected by a patent and did not share this success. I think
that Software patents would inhibit the definition and acceptance of
open software standards in the future.

  
  3.   Software patents are a good (may be the only) way for the big players
in the software sector to get more power - they own most of the patents
and therefore they can prohibit the raise of competitors by denying
licenses, revoking given licenses or by claiming high license fees.

  
  4.   I think that algorithms are the natural fundament of mathematics and
therefore can be compared with other categories of laws of nature. E.g.
no one really can claim to 'invent' the gravitational theory - it
existed in the past, still exists and (i hope so) will continue to
exist, disredarding if anyone discover it, as Newton and Einstein did in
this case in the past.

  
  5.   Last but not least: Could anyone explain me the substantial
difference between:
   'the idea to use of vehicles rolling on wheels to transport goods'
   and
   'the idea to use of a button in an internet shop to buy goods'
     (i have one-click shopping patent of amazon in my mind)






In both cases, there was nothing new. Why should one of this ideas be
protected by a patent and the other idea not?



IMO there is only one group that has real advantages in algorithm and
software patents - the advocates.


-- 
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards
Michael Gast
SEPP MED GmbH

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Received on Wed Oct 22 2003 - 15:08:17 CEST












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