Comment Patents (Score 1) 249
Once upon a time, I worked for a large hardware and software company in a "Technology Transfer" capacity. One of the jobs of our group was to review recently awarded patents to determine the effect (if any) it would have on our operations.
Back in 1982, one patent that I was reading seemed awfully familiar, despite being camouflaged in legalese and an obtuse algorithm description. Moving over to my whiteboard, I started diagramming the steps outlined in the patent description. After a few iterations I stepped back to see what I had done; It was a BUBBLE SORT! Someone had managed, in 1982, to get a patent on the bubble sort, the height of "obvious" and "prior art".
ken
Back in 1982, one patent that I was reading seemed awfully familiar, despite being camouflaged in legalese and an obtuse algorithm description. Moving over to my whiteboard, I started diagramming the steps outlined in the patent description. After a few iterations I stepped back to see what I had done; It was a BUBBLE SORT! Someone had managed, in 1982, to get a patent on the bubble sort, the height of "obvious" and "prior art".
ken
