Most patents these days aren't for new concepts, but slight - sometimes almost imperceptively so - tweaks in the way something is done. We'll see how these come out, but I think the poster who suggested that this was more a marketing ploy than anything might be more on the mark than most.
Rick Cook On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 2:01 PM, John Baker <jba...@javasystemsolutions.com> wrote: > Hello > > I've reviewed some of the patents and I was amused by what passes for a > 'patent'. > > http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US5978594 > > This patent is all about agents running on hosts, controlled by a > central service. It is described as "novel", but it's not something > invented by BMC and is present in many other products. For example, both > IBM Websphere and Oracle Weblogic have a concept of a central service > (WAS deployment manager, WL admin server), that feeds > instructions/configuration to nodes running JVMs. This is not novel - > it's common place. > > http://www.google.com/patents/US6816898 > > Collecting performance metrics. I can do that in a couple of lines of > Python and it's nothing new. A typical large bank will have lots of this > stuff, both purchased and home grown, littered on their networks with an > "operations team" constantly monitoring it. > > http://www.google.co.in/patents/US6895586 > > This one is awful. It sounds like BMC claim to have invented a system of > storing data in a hierarchical document using namespaces - you know, > what we commonly refer to as XML. There's no intellectual property in > designing a schema. > > http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US7062683 > > This patent seems to suggest BMC have invented a method of > troubleshooting via flowcharts - something I recall doing at school in > the mid-80s, and I recall plenty being present in my 6502 Assembler > guide. > > I suspect this and other patent relates to the way in which a BMC > product works, but copying the concept is not a crime (Microsoft do not > own the concept of a word processor, or sending an email). Indeed, for > every concept pinched by a competitor, BMC will have pinched one > themselves - such as graphing data to display metrics, which is almost > certainly patented by some other company. > > I think the core problem with many IT patents is they aren't actually > 'inventions' but a great way for lawyers to make money. After all, they > are hardly going to turn around and tell a BMC senior manager, "I'm > sorry mate, but this patent has no value". Real inventions, such as > James Dyson's bag-less vacuum cleaner, have real value. These patents > seem to tell a competitor more about how the internals of a BMC product > works rather than defining an 'invention' of real value. > > > John > > Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, but I can use Google :) > > > _______________________________________________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org > "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years" > _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
