> >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.
>
>
> This is getting off topic, but:
> The criteria for something to be patentable is that the average
> practitioner in the field wouldn't think of it. So it boils down to
> whether the average programmer would think of windowing, given the
problem.
There also can't be 'prior art'... "windowing" has been used since the 70s
if not earlier. There were some early 1960s systems that used a single
digit for the year... they used windowing as a way of dealing with the Y1970
problem :)
-jrp
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