> On Tue, Jan 11, 2000 at 09:46:09AM -0700, Aaron Blosser wrote:
> >Dunno 'bout all that, but another problem was that in order to
> do a "quick
> >and dirty" fix of the Y2K problem, a good number of people implemented
> >windowing.
>
> The funny thing is, somebody has actually been granted a patent
> on this. Now.
> I saw that in DataEase, running on MS-DOS 3.21. Something like 10
> years ago.
> I've heard some rumours that they're reconsidering that patent, though...
'Tis true. It doesn't surprise me that many companies are teaming up to
fight the patent. Windowing was *the* best way to quickly fix all that
software, and a good number of software vendors used it.
If I recall right, the guy who owns the patent wasn't asking for much in the
way of royalties from each company (but amounts to a lot when totalled), but
I think the fight revolves around whether this guy really invented the idea,
or whether it's just one of those common sense things that can't be
patented, or something like that. MSNBC online probably has a story on it
in their tech section. Ah...sure enough:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/333372.asp
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