The Linked List was recently patented… no, not by Donald Knuth or some one working with Godfather of Computer Science. No, the Linked List was patented by a Ming-Jen Wang of LSI Logic Corporation in 2006.
The patent abstract says,”A computerized list is provided with auxiliary pointers for traversing the list in different sequences. One or more auxiliary pointers enable a fast, sequential traversal of the list with a minimum of computational time. Such lists may be used in any application where lists may be reordered for various purposes.”
That is the same exact description of a pointer given in my college textbook, before this patent was filed. It is clear that there is a patent land rush. For would be inventors, the patent system is the best thing since sliced bread, and I’m sure this Ming-Jen Wang has that patent pending for sliced bread.
I’m going to patent the Linked Hash Map, because this guy patent’s that too. Someone should patent the pointer, if that is not already patented. If there is an ambulance chasing lawyer that would like to work pro bono, I think we should patent something critical to civilization, like calculus or pottery.
It is clear that omitting prior art is an art in itself that some have perfected to a science.
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12 Comments
How about patenting stupidity or greed ?
I always felt this whole patenting thing will go nuts someday. And if someone sane doesnt stop/alter this craziness soon enough, this will just form into a giant ball of mess waiting to explode.
I call dibs on the patent with 3 sets of pointers. Really, this seems like the kind of thing that might have been mentioned in passing in SICP or Oh, Pascal!
“It is clear that omitting prior art is an art in itself that some have perfected to a science.”
I’m gonna patent omitting prior art in patent applications.
@antoinek WAY too much “prior art”
I will patent the patent application process. Problem solved.
Hope this does not trigger patenting craze in programmer world.
Great news :) so job interview’s question to implement Linked List is dead?
“It is clear that omitting prior art is an art in itself that some have perfected to a science.”
Agreed. Who knows whether that art is already patented?
I want to patent the Variable and charge $1,000/yr per use license fee. How rich do you think I’d be? ;-)
I want to patent/copyright/trademark every single version of the Hello, World program in every programming language so that I can get a cut from every beginners book out there.
The new plan to profits… 1. wait for something to be invented. 2. patent it. 3. ??? 4. Profit.
That’s alright, I own the patent on for..next loops, integers, and… remarks.
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[...] is a patent on the linked list. As recently pointed out by Juixe, the US government has given a patent on the linked list to LSI Logic Corp who filed for the patent [...]