In response to dennis roberts, who wrote in part:
>
> > i see "inventing" some algorithm as <snip> not quite in the same
> > genre of developing a process for extracting some enzyme from a
> > substance ... using a particular piece of equipment specially
> > developed for that purpose
> > i hope we don't see a trend IN this direction ...
On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Paige Miller replied:
> If it so happens that while I am in the employ of a certain company, I
> invent some new algorithm, then my company has a vested interest in
> making sure that the algorithm remains its property and that no one
> else uses it, especially a competitor. Thus, it is advantageous for my
> employer to patent such inventions. In this view, mathematical
> inventions are no different than mechanical, chemical or other
> inventions.
Yes. And in another domain of discourse, statistical methods invented
by statisticians like Abraham Wald, who worked on military problems
during WWII, were military secrets until the war ended.
"Official secret" is the governmental/military equivalent of "patent".
-- Don.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Donald F. Burrill [EMAIL PROTECTED]
348 Hyde Hall, Plymouth State College, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MSC #29, Plymouth, NH 03264 (603) 535-2597
184 Nashua Road, Bedford, NH 03110 (603) 471-7128
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