Fwd: Dickens 2000 Patent -- BPCS-L

I had BCC my earlier posting to some people whom I thought might like to know 
about the Analog reference.

Al

Subject: Re: Dickens 2000 Patent
From: "Leon A. Kappelman" <Kapp@xxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 12:54:27 -0600
Priority: normal

Problems of the global patent system aside for a moment, 
it appears that at best Dickens' claim confounds at least 
two different y2k solution approaches under his use of the 
name "windowing" -- basically windowing and data data file 
conversion.  Windowing is a logic only approach and, as 
normally used, does not include either "reformatting" in 
the sense that any 4-digit years are placed or stored 
within the active/working_memory/RAM of the computer or 
writing 4-digit years back into the database.  

That the prior existence of the logic of windowing itself 
is clearly documented on page 248 of Ohms' 1986 IBM Systems 
Journal article is without question.  As for the steps of a 
file conversion, file conversion utilities (i.e., programs) 
have been doing such things for decades.  As far as I can 
tell, Dickens has nothing new here.  Of course, I am open 
to further illumination.

 Leon A. Kappelman, Ph.D.
 Associate Professor, Business Computer Information Systems
 Associate Director, Center for Quality & Productivity
   College of Business Administration, Univ. of North Texas
 Co-chair, Society for Info. Management Y2K Working Group
 Steering Committee, YES Volunteer Corps (www.iy2kcc.org)
 Voice: 940-565-4698  Fax: 940-369-7623  Email: kapp@unt.edu
 Website: http://www.unt.edu/bcis/faculty/kappelma/
============================================================

On 2 Dec 99, at 13:05, MacWheel99@aol.com wrote:

From:               MacWheel99@aol.com
Date sent:          Thu, 2 Dec 1999 13:05:57 EST
Subject:            Re: Dickens 2000 Patent
To:                 BPCS-L@midrange.com (BPCS Users Discussion Group)

> As far as I know, my employer has not yet received the
> Dickens letter ... thankyou IBM for keeping your customer
> list reasonably confidential, but since it is an open book
> to your trading partners, how long until a Dickens law suit
> forces identification of 100% of us?
> 
> Thanks for the references ... another place Y"all might like
> to visit for some insight into the complex world of patent
> disputes is the fact article in the science fact & fiction
> magazine Analog January 2000 issue on how patent law is
> being changed thanks to the USA allowing foreign lobbyists
> to influence the nation's capital & UN treaties & WTO
> usurping individual nations laws & constitutions at the
> local state & federal levels.  
> 
> Without me getting into the details here, not all of the
> nuances I understand anyway, the laws on patents are
> different in different countries, and the US system is
> out-of-step with the rest of the world & while we might like
> how US system has worked for the past 2 centuries, it's
> democratic uniqueness is not long for this world.  We need
> to be very careful, applying past practicies &
> understandings how something works, to future expectations,
> when the whole system is changing.
> 
> The US Patent system has already had some changes due to
> this international effort & more are coming.  The first
> change was to have the clock start ticking on patent
> expiration from time of applying for a patent instead of
> from time of patent being issued & the article cites a case
> in which the patent office took 40 years to issue it because
> the staff did not understand the technology.
> 
> The doomed US system rewards intellectuals who created
> inventions, while the one used by most of the rest of the
> world, such as the Japanese, places inventions totally under
> the control of large international corporations and their
> lawyers.  100% of US Nobel Laureates & several other bodies
> of intellectual leadership have asked for a national debate
> on the economic infrastructure implications of this change
> to the US constitution.  I did not see anything in the
> normal media on the topic until Seattle took them by
> surprise.
> 
> The article on page 52 is by John D. Trudel who has more
> info & links on this at his web page www.trudelgroup.com
> 
> Al Macintyre