battle@cs.utk.edu (David Battle) (06/14/91)
So what is this about AT&T having a copyright on backing stores? I only heard about it yesterday and was surprised to see that it had not been mentioned here (at least as far back as my new system's back issues). All I know is that they definitely hold a patent (4,555,775) which supposedly covers backings stores (one of the most obvious, straight forward ways of refreshing windows, my girlfriend just invented it without any coaching whatsoever even though she had never heard of it). I hear that companies distrubiting X are being threatened with lawsuits by AT&T. Rumor also has it that AT&T's basis for this is some work done by Rob Pike. If this is true, Rob, I'm very embarrased for you. I heard this from a somewhat biased source, so I would like to hear the other side. If this is even remotely close to the truth, however, I think a boycott of AT&T is definitely in order. Of course also a letter to appropriate people in Washington urging them to hire competent patent examiners before granting patents on computer algorithms. Deeply concerned, -David L. Battle battle@cs.utk.edu
CS727713%HKPCC.HKP.HK@mitvma.mit.EDU ("Stephen Wong ", Hong Kong Poly. - Computing Dept.) (06/14/91)
In the May issue of Byte magazine, there is an article concerning the backing store patent by AT&T, and X11 is likely containing the say patent. AT&T would like to place a hand on X11, is it something to do with OpenWin? Stephen Wong. cs727713@hkpcc.hkp.hk
guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (06/21/91)
>AT&T would like to place a hand on X11, is it something to do with OpenWin?
Dunno, given that AT&T doesn't offer any of the bits of Open Windows
(with the *possible* exception of XView) on their machines, as far as I
know. Source to various bits of OW comes on the S5R4 tape, but they
don't offer the X11/NeWS server (nor any NeWS toolkits), and have their
own OL window manager distinct from the Crucible/Sun one.
(They also don't own any Sun stock any more, as far as I know, BTW.)guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (06/21/91)
>All I know is that they definitely hold a patent (4,555,775) >which supposedly covers backings stores (one of the most obvious, >straight forward ways of refreshing windows, my girlfriend just invented >it without any coaching whatsoever even though she had never heard >of it). Well, maybe. Does anybody who's read the patent know *precisely* what it covers? Is the scheme mentioned there similar to the one used by the MIT server? At one point in another discussion of this, Amanda Walker of Visix indicated that the schemes might be different enough that the MIT server's scheme may not be covered by the patent; I think she'd indicated that she'd looked at the patent. >Rumor also has it that AT&T's basis for this is some work done by Rob >Pike. The patent is on stuff in Rob's "layers" software, as far as I know.